Guardian of the Earth
by chilledcactus
Summary: Percy leaves camp after certain events take place and wanders alone through the country. He helps young demigods reach camp and fights off monsters. After a few months, Chaos appears before him and offers to make him the guardian of Earth.
1. Chapter 1

Poseidon's POV

Sometimes, it sucks to be a god. Normally it is awesome and fun, but one mistake made one time can lead to some truly terrible things. I have always been somewhat impulsive but that was never much of a problem, except for the one time my impulsiveness cost me dearly. It all started 17 years ago…

I had just learned that my favorite mortal woman in over 1000 years was expecting a baby. Normally, this would have been great news, but due to a certain oath about not having kids and laws that prevented me from seeing them anyways, it meant I would no longer be allowed to see my dear Sally again. So, although I was glad to be having a son, the knowledge that my son would be having a terribly hard life and be hunted down by my brothers made me angry and sad.

To try and forget my problems, that night I went out into the mortal world to a bar and drank. A lot. Now, as a god, I don't get drunk off of the mortal stuff, but it can get me a little tipsy. Tipsy enough to give into more of my impulsiveness than normal. Such as this night, I went and had a one-night stand with some lady at the bar.

The next day I regretted what I had done so I left in a hurry and tried my hardest to forget what I had done. I forced myself to stop thinking about the woman and the possibility I might have another some on the way. I hoped nothing bad would happen and put it out of my mind. The result of that night though, would tear my world apart.

It turns out that that mortal woman did bear my child and since I never checked up on her again, I never knew and ignored the boy. His mother kept him and raised him to believe that he was a perfect angel who could do no wrong, everything he did was right and everyone should treat him like the perfect angel he was. Everything in the world was his for the taking. Due to the fact that his mother was such a repulsive person, her scent covered up his demigod scent for years.

One day when he was 17 years old, my other son, Percy, and some of his friends were out in the mortal world hanging out when they happened to pass this other son of mine. At the time they passed him he was hanging out in a park near a fountain making the water trip random people and laughing at them. Percy saw this and realized the guy was a demigod so with the help of his friends, they dragged him off to Camp Halfblood.

Once he got to camp, things went wrong.

Percy POV

I was sitting in the clearing by the fire thinking about the day that had been. It had been relatively uneventful. No monster attacks, no demigods to be found, no people in need of help, no trouble in general. Just a nice peaceful day. I sat there staring at the flames of the fire thinking about how nice the peace was when my companion turned to me.

"Percy, tell me your story. Please. We have been travelling together for 6 months and you already know all the hurt that took place in my life," she said. "I know you don't like thinking about the hurt and the pain, but if you talk to me, I can help you get over it or at least move on. Sometimes, just telling the story to someone is enough to help make you feel better and I want to help you."

I sighed. She had valid points, it's just, I really don't like thinking about what happened to me. How my friends left me and the gods turned their backs to me. It had been five and a half years, but I still try not to think about it. I don't hate anyone, but that's the problem. It would be so easy to hate them all for what they did to me but hate is not a natural thing for me to feel. Instead, all I feel is the sadness. Sometimes I wish I could hate them for hurting me but no matter how hard I try to, my loyalties still lie with the gods and the demigods. I sighed again. She was right; she did deserve to know. So I told her my story.

"It was a regular day at Camp Halfblood, it was the summer after the war with the giants and Gaea and everything was peaceful and calm. I was spending time down at the beach with my girlfriend Annabeth," I struggled over that name a little, "when Grover came up to us with news.

"He said 'a satyr just came from central park in New York and said that an older teenager that had a strong demigod scent showed up there everyday for the past week. He thought it was odd that the boy was so old and informed me. Since he is so old, could you two go and pick up for me? Supposedly he looks kind of like you, Percy, just a little shorter and a little rounder. The boys name is Daniel.'" I had to say his name through gritted teeth, I know I said I don't hate them, but he is the one I am the closest to hating.

"So Annabeth and I went and found Nico and headed into the city to find Daniel and bring him to camp. Once we got the park, it was pretty easy to find him, because he was standing right next a fountain using water to trip people. My mouth dropped open. This kid was my half brother and looked to be the same age as me, maybe a little younger but not much. He was also using his powers to torment people.

"I walked up to him and told him to stop tripping people but he just laughed and told me to make him. So I controlled the water to wrap around him and bind his limbs together. 'We need to talk to you,' I said gesturing to Nico, Annabeth, and myself. So we took him, walked to a secluded place in the park, and explained everything to him. He took the news surprisingly well and began talking about how he always knew he was better than everyone else. I gritted my teeth and tried not to get angry with my newfound brother but he was making it pretty hard. As we left the park for camp, he used the water to trip a few more people on the way out.

"I was going to snap at him for using his powers on mortals but Annabeth started laughing and congratulating him on his achievement. I was rather perplexed but let it slide. Nico seemed annoyed at the actions, but he too kept quiet."

I stopped talking at this point and just stared into the fire. Thinking. Reminiscing. Trying to understand why everything had to happen the way it did. My companion realized I wasn't continuing the story and turned back to me.

"Are you going to continue with your story, or do you want to take a break and continue another day?" She asked me.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I definitely didn't want to tell the story, but I knew I had to tell her what had happened. I had relived enough for one night though. "I'm sorry, but I would rather not continue telling you the story tonight. Perhaps tomorrow I can continue the tale."

She nodded and then went to sleep. I wanted to do the same, but sleep was hard to find on the nights when I thought about my past, so I gazed up at the stars as the fire slowly died and thought. As I thought, I slowly drifted off to sleep and had dreams about my past.

I would rather have gone sleepless.

Annabeth POV

I sat on the beach at camp thinking. It had been a little more than five years since Percy disappeared. At first it was weird without him being around, but the camp got used to it. A few weeks after Percy left the gods came to us. They were worried about how we would fare if another war came and we didn't have Percy to help us, so they made the hero's from the war with Gaea immortal. They also made Daniel immortal since Percy had trained him before he left and I think Poseidon felt a little guilty about something.

So now, I was immortal and would train campers for eternity. I would train them and watch them die. I would be kind of like Chiron except I also had my immortal friends, so things wouldn't get too lonely. On the downside, I would have to put up with Daniel for the rest of forever.

Oh well. After what I did, I probably deserve worse than that. I sighed and left for my cabin. I missed Percy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, so just so you know, I'm not really sure what I am getting myself into with this story. I have it more or less mapped out and will do my best to write well, but who knows. **

** It seems that there are some people who are rather fond of this story after just one chapter and that should help keep me motivated to write this whole story.**

** I will update at least once a week and probably more. I know that it kind of sucks when stories you like don't get updated.**

**Also, I forgot the disclaimer last chapter so I will do it now.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or any of the characters. **

Percy POV

I woke up early the next morning feeling pretty bad. Telling the beginning of my story and dreaming about the rest of it had me feeling pretty bad. I got up and went for a walk hoping to clear my head a little before my companion awoke.

I enjoy walking through the forest early in the morning. The animals are just starting to wake up and the morning mist is still hanging around. No wind and cool, crisp air is a great way to wake up and push your problems aside. I was hoping today would be more exciting then the previous week. Nothing had happened, which was nice, it meant there was very little danger in the world at the time, but right now, it would help me get my mind off things and relax.

I walked through the forest for several hours before returning to camp. She was awake now and preparing breakfast. She heard me enter the clearing and turned to me and smiled. We made small talk, but I wasn't feeling very talkative, just contemplative. After breakfast, we packed up and continued our trek southward.

"Where are we going? If you don't mind me asking," she asked me.

"I don't really know. Everything seems to be calm and peaceful with the world, but lately I Have also been getting this feeling that we should head towards the border between Oregon and California. Something might happen there," I told her.

So we continued walking south through the coastal range, heading towards the state border and hoping that whatever was coming, wouldn't be too major.

That night we made camp about 20 miles from the border. We sat by the fire and watched the stars and I hoped that she wouldn't ask me to continue my story. No such luck.

"Hey, Percy, I know you don't want to continue with the story, but please? I want to know," she said. She looked at me and I knew that I couldn't say no.

"Okay. Fine. Tonight will be the worst of it, and tomorrow I will finish it. Then we can be done with it and move one," I said. Oh boy, this was going to be hard.

"The instant we arrived at camp, Daniel was claimed by Poseidon. No one was really surprised by that, he was older than most demigods and had been showing his powers already. What surprised people was that Poseidon himself came to personally claim his other son; he even gave him his own magical sword.

"I was happy for Daniel, he had been ignored by his father for the first 17 years of his life and Poseidon seemed to be trying to make it up to him, at least a little bit. He asked me train Daniel in sword fighting and with his water powers, which was alright by me. Although Daniel didn't exactly seem like the nicest guy around, I blamed that on the fact that he had been stuck in the mortal world as a demigod for so long and that once he settled in, he wouldn't be so bad. Like always, I was wrong.

"I did train him as best as I could, but he hated not being better than me. He had the potential to be a great fighter, but he would always ditch lessons early because I would beat him and he never practiced on his own. Instead, he went around camp bragging and trying to make people think he was great at everything. He also insisted on hanging out with my friends and me whenever he could.

"I wasn't fond of him always hanging around, but most of my friends seemed to like him well enough and if they were happy, that was enough for me. Nico was the only other person who seemed to dislike Daniel, so if I wanted to avoid Daniel, I would have to hang out with Nico alone. I didn't mind that too much, it just meant I got to spend less alone time with Annabeth. That did annoy me.

"Nico began spending less time at camp and more time in the underworld hanging out with ghosts and helping his dead and doing other such stuff. He didn't like being around Daniel and the way the campers treated Daniel made Nico mad, so he only showed up occasionally to talk to me.

"About halfway through the summer, Daniel got bored and restless and really wanted to show the world that he was the best out there, so he asked for a quest. The instant he asked for a quest, Poseidon appeared and gave him a quest to go fight a rogue river spirit and some of her other monster allies. For his companions, he took Annabeth and Grover.

"The quest took them a couple of weeks to complete, but they did succeed. When he came back, everyone celebrated. Which he deserved. He finished a quest with no casualties on our side, which is always something to celebrate. He deserved some recognition for what he did, I even congratulated him. He smirked at me when I complemented him. 'See, even you acknowledge that I am better.'

"'I don't know about better, but I am glad that no one was hurt. So yeah.' And with that I walked off.

"Over the course of the next couple weeks though, everyone did seem to believe that Daniel was indeed better than me. I didn't really care though, let him believe what he wants to believe, I knew what I had done and what he had done. Even if people didn't recognize me, I didn't really care. I was glad someone other than me was the center of attention. This, though, is when the problems really started.

"When he had first shown up, me and my friends let him hang out with us. Now, it felt as if they would rather hang out with Daniel and were dragging me along because they didn't want to be mean. 'Ah well,' I told myself, 'at least I still have Annabeth, right?'

"Wrong.

"Even Annabeth began pulling away from me and spending her time with Daniel instead. About a month after they returned from Daniel's quest, I pulled Annabeth aside to talk with her.

"What do you want, Percy," she asked me?

"Hey Annabeth, I just want to spend some time with you. That's all. Ever since you came back from the quest with Daniel, we haven't gotten very much time to ourselves," I told her. "Instead, you always want to spend time with Daniel."

"Percy, there is nothing wrong with spending time with Daniel. I don't know what you have against him, but he is a great guy, so let it go. Alright?"

"Hang on, I never said I don't like him or that we shouldn't hang out with him, although all his bragging is kind of annoying, I just want to spend time with my wonderful girlfriend. That's all."

"What do you mean his bragging is annoying? He has every right to brag. He completed a quest; killed some monsters, and no one got hurt. That is something worth bragging about. Stop being jealous."

"I'm not jealous," I practically screamed at her, "I saved the world half a dozen times, but you don't see me bragging about it. All he did was complete one measly little quest and now he thinks he's the greatest hero ever!"

"Look, Percy, I don't want to fight with you, but why can't you just accept that you aren't the greatest person alive and that maybe Daniel is just a better hero than you?"

"You know what? Fine. I don't even care anymore. Go hang out with Daniel some more. I will stay in my cabin or go for a walk. I will do something and stay out of your guys' way. Have fun.

"And with that, I walked away. At first, I did sit in my cabin and think, but that got boring pretty fast, so I decided to go train. I left for the arena but Daniel and my friends were there. I decided to wait for them to clear out since it looked like they were almost done anyways, and then I would train for a while, to relieve stress.

"As Daniels group was leaving, I heard Annabeth ask him to go down to the beach with her. I thought that was odd, I knew they were friends, but something didn't feel quite right here. In order to sate my curiosity, I followed them down to the beach and hid in the sea grass on the top of the dunes. The wind was blowing in from the ocean so I could hear their entire conversation easily.

"Hey Annabeth, what is it?" Daniel asked her. They were sitting down right next to each other in the sand down by the ocean.

"It's Percy. I don't know what it is, but lately, he seems really distant and whenever we do have time together, he seems incredibly rude and self-centered," she told him.

"You know, I always thought that he was self-centered and a little rude, but because you two are dating, I decided to keep my opinion to myself."

"Well, he didn't use to be like this though. He used to be nice, caring, strong, and many other great things. Kind of like you are, Daniel, but now, I don't know. I just don't love him anymore I guess."

_WHAT? _I screamed in my head. I couldn't believe she was saying this.

Daniel put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. "Well, if you ever want to leave him, I will be waiting for you. I guess what I'm saying is that I love you Annabeth."

"Really, Daniel? Because lately, I have been having feeling for you as well, but I'm not sure, I still kind of like Percy."

"Oh, forget him, you said it yourself, he has changed. There is no use in hurting yourself by sticking with a self-centered rude guy like him, when you can be with me instead."

"Hmm, maybe you're right Daniel. I think that tonight at campfire I will break up with him. Thanks Daniel." And then she kissed him.

"I couldn't believe what I had just seen and heard. I didn't want to believe that it could have just happened. But it had happened and I had seen it myself. I knew that Annabeth and me had been in a bit of a rough patch, but to think that after everything we had been through and done for each other, she would give me up just like that. For my own brother nonetheless. It tore me up.

"I left my hiding place and walked into the forest crying. I didn't want to be seen. No one would comfort me; no one would care. They all would think that Annabeth had made the right choice because they all believed that Daniel was better than me.

"After several hours, I heard the conch sound for dinner. I wasn't hungry, but it meant I could now get around camp without worrying about running into other campers. So I left the forest and went to my cabin. I packed a bag and decided to leave. I would rather spend every day fighting monsters and possibly dying that live at a camp that was no longer home to me. Too much pain here. I was forgotten and pushed aside because my brother was better. I wasn't wanted. I took the hint and left.

Part way through my story, it had started to rain. I was glad for the rain because it helped hide my tears. I stood up, turned away from the now dead fire, and walked away. M companion had no words for me. She sat there and listened, and when the story was done, she got in her tent for the night.

I slept in the open. As the son of the sea god, water didn't bother me. In fact, sleeping in the open in the rain was strangely comforting. Especially tonight. The rain eased me into a dreamless sleep. It was nice and peaceful, and I was thankful for that.

**Okay, that is the chapter. I know I only had one POV, but I won't always have multiple, just normally I will. That chapter was approximately 2000 words. Hopefully, I will keep my chapters at least 1500 words or more. Preferably more. It also depends on how often I update.**

** Speaking of updates, depending on how the next part plays out as I write it, you will either learn who Percy's companion is next chapter or in two chapters.**

** Also, if anyone has ideas that they want to throw at me, feel free. I probably won't use them, but you never know. Sometimes an idea just clicks, and if it does, I will make sure to give you credit for it.**

** Thanks to those who reviewed my first chapter and favorite the story or whatever, it's nice to know that people like my writing.**

** So, just want to let you know that this would have been updated earlier but FanFiction isn't letting me upload for some reason. Hopefully I don't have this problem in the future.**

**Until next time, good night.**


	3. Chapter 3

** Okay, onto the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or any of the related books.**

Nico POV

Life is weird without Percy around. After Daniel showed up, I rarely went to camp, and only for short trips to visit Percy. Once Percy left, I stopped visiting altogether. It has been a little over 5 years since I last visited camp. I know his old "friends" are sorry for what they did to him. They want his forgiveness and another chance. I also know that Percy would forgive them if they asked for it. But I'm not him; I won't forgive them. Not yet.

As far as I know, I am the only person Percy ever has contact with. We talk maybe 3 or 4 times a year and so I knowhow he is doing and what he is up to. I'm happy for him, he found a place in the world where he can help people like he always wants to do without having to worry about betrayal and other bad things. Not even the gods know what happened to Percy. They don't know where he is or what he is doing.

Everyone knows that I know what happened to Percy. At first, no one cared when Percy left, then, slowly, people started missing him and regretting their actions. They wanted to get in contact with him and apologize. Since they knew that I never turned my back on him, they assumed I would be able to contact Percy. As if I would help them. Not even the gods have been able to get me to crack and spill Percy's secrets. After a few years, they came to terms with the fact that I wouldn't give away Percy's secrets and stopped pestering me about it. Except for Annabeth.

She refuses to leave me alone. She Iris messages me at least once a week asking me to put her in contact with Percy. Of all the people that have asked me to let them contact Percy, she is the LEAST likely of them to get the opportunity.

Anyhow, it's been several months since I last talked to Percy so hopefully one of these days he will contact me and I can talk to my best friend again. For now though, I'm heading out to the Fields of Punishment to make sure things are running smoothly.

Percy POV

My companion shook me awake. I got up and looked around. We had gotten quite a bit of rain last night, but it had let up by the time I was woken up. The air was thick with the rain that had fallen and the morning mist. I love cool moist air. It makes it easier to wake up and focus.

I was feeling much better now that the worst of the story was over and I had had a good nights sleep as well, so I got busy making breakfast. Once we were done eating, we packed up camp and continued our trek south. We still had about 20 miles to go, so we would reach the border sometime in the late afternoon or early evening.

These last couple days, as I was telling my story, my companion has been quiet. She ahs been talking to me much, probably worried about upsetting me or something, which was nice, but now I was feeling a bit better. With the worst of the story behind me, I was feeling more upbeat. More like my usual cheerful self.

As we walked, we talked about current events in the mortal world. These last several years, I have kept up with mortal affairs quite a bit more because as much as a love hiking through the wilderness and living away from people, it get a little lonely and you start losing touch with the people you are trying to protect. So, I spend maybe half of time with people, meeting strangers, watching news, walking through the cities and towns, even following sports. The rest of the time I spend out in the wilderness, watching nature and listening to the earth.

So my companion and I walked and talked, and the day progressed. We made our way towards the border making it 3-4 miles an hour. Around mid-afternoon I decided to continue my story, there wasn't much left to tell and the rest didn't make me sad, in fact, it made me quite happy.

"Hey," I said, getting my companions attention, "I'm feeling pretty good and I'm not patient enough to wait until tonight to continue my story, so listen up."  
>"Right before I left camp, I decided to leave a short note, just in case anyone wanted to know where I was. I wrote the note and left it attached to the door of the big house. It read: <em>Hey guys, Percy here, I'm leaving camp. After seeing the last of my friends at camp abandon me for Daniel, this place is no longer home. I'm heading out to live in world. Hopefully you guys all have a good life and I hope Daniel turns out to be the great guy you all think he is. Bye.<em>

"After leaving the note, I left camp and walked out into the wilderness. I spent the next couple of weeks avoiding people and cities and towns, but eventually I grew lonely. I wanted to at least SEE people again. So I headed into the city and walked the streets, I saw the news and continued walking. Late in the afternoon, the middle school I was walking next to got out. I watched the kids run past me and remembered how simple my life was before I found out I was a demigod.

"I turned to walk away, but as I turned, I saw some older looking kids pull a young kid who looked to be a sixth grader, into the alley behind the school. I'm not sure if you know this, but I HATE bullies. So naturally, I went to the alley to put a stop to the bullying, but what I saw wasn't eighth graders picking on a sixth grader, it was three lastrygonians (_is that how you spell that? I hate spelling…_) about to eat a young little demigod. Me being me, I pulled out Riptide and cut down the monsters before they could hurt the poor kid.

"The little kid, who was actually a young girl with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes, turned to me looking completely stunned. 'W-w-what just ha-happened?' she stuttered out. 'Who are you, what were those things and why did they tell me I smelled like a demigod?' She asked, building momentum as she went. She was going to keep asking questions and getting more confused, so I cut her off and decided to answer her.

"'You look like a sixth grader, so you are what, 11? 12? Doesn't matter… never mind. Those were Lastrygonians and they are monsters. They said you smell like a demigod because one of your parents is a god. I know this is probably really confusing for you and I'm not real good at explaining these things, if you want more answers, I can take you to a safe place,' I said, without really thinking. Great, I thought, I just volunteered to take her to the place I just left… Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

"She looked incredibly freaked out but answered me none the less, 'You mean there is a place I can go that will explain the things I see to me? And you will take me there? As long as you promise I won't get hurt you can take me there. Anywhere is better than my current life…,' she muttered the last part to herself, but I heard her anyways.

"I offered her my hand and responded, 'I promise. Now lets go before more monsters show up.'

"I didn't have any money, so we were going to have to walk to camp. It took us two days, but we eventually made it. I decided I would not go up the hill and into camp, but I pointed to Thalia's tree and told her that on the other side of the hill she would meet people who would be her friends and help her out. She nodded and reluctantly left me at the bottom of the hill as she climbed up and over. I never told her my name because I didn't want people to judge her for liking me.

"After she made it over the hill, I turned and walked away. Well, I tried to walk away anyways. I took a step and blacked out. When I came to, I was in outer space, looking down at Earth. I nearly shat myself.

"As I floated there freaking out, a voice next to me said, 'Don't worry, you are under my protection for now, you won't die up here.'

"I turned to the voice and saw a being. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, it was like a mass of energy in a humanoid shape, all black with what looked like galaxies and start floating throughout its body. It turned its head towards me and spoke again, 'Relax, Perseus Jackson, relax. I am not here to hurt you. Quite the contrary in fact. You have piqued my curiosity to a point no other human has before. You saved this planet numerous times and in return asked for next to nothing, just for the rulers to show respect towards each other and others. In return for your hard work, they abandoned you, yet you just now showed that you are still trying to help them anyways. It is most intriguing, most people would hate the gods and demigods and the world for turning on them after they did so much to help, but not you. You seem almost incapable of hatred towards this planet, so I have come to you with an offer.'

"'W-w-wait, who are you? And how do you know so much about me?' I asked the being.

"'Ah, you truly don't know who I am? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, you never were the brightest crayon in the box… Anyhow, I am Chaos, creator of all and ruler of this universe. And as I said, I have an offer for you. Something I would like you to do for me.'

"I tried to bow before Chaos, but for some reason, I didn't seem to be able to move. Instead of fighting against these restraints, I decided to answer Chaos. 'It's an honor to meet you and I would bow before you, but I don't seem to be able to… Anyways, I would love to help you out, but what could I possibly do to help the most powerful force in existence?' I asked Chaos.

"'You see, Earth was the first world I created, and I had my children rule over it, but they were terrible rulers, as were there children the titans. The titans children, the gods, are decent rulers, but they aren't vey good when major problems arise. You saw that when Kronos tried to rise again and it took them years to finally admit he was rising and then they couldn't even work together until you convinced them to. Then again When Gaea started waking and reviving her children the giants, the gods closed themselves off from you demigods and once again tried to ignore the problem. I would like to intervene and help out with these conflicts, but I cannot, as I am too powerful, all I would do is freak out the gods and do major damage to the Earth. I want to have a guardian of sorts for the Earth, to protect it from danger and help out in times of dire need. The problem I have had is what type of being to have as the Earth's guardian. My children tend to end up evil, and I don't want to risk having more of those in the universe. No god would do, because I want to have the Guardian remain secret and the gods aren't good in times of crisis, as I pointed out. So I have been watching over Earth and waiting to see if any mortal being seemed suitable for the job. I was beginning to doubt that I would ever find a suitable person to the guardian, but then you were born. At first, I paid you no heed, not until you retrieved Zeus' masterbolt did I notice you. Then I watched you save your friends and the planet several times. You never wanted the attention; you just wanted to do what was right. I started to think that maybe you could do as the guardian of Earth and that once you died, I would see if you would accept the role. I figured that solved that problem for the time, but then your friends all abandoned you. I couldn't believe it, the perfect person to be the guardian and now he was probably going to become a ball of hatred. Luckily, I was wrong. Instead of hatred, you felt sadness and still did your best to help the planet. However, instead of waiting for you to die before offering you the position, since you no longer have a home or anywhere to go, I am offering you the job now. So, how would you like to become the Guardian of Earth?'

"I stood there blushing and thinking about what Chaos had just said. The most powerful being in existence was complementing me and asking me to help protect the world. I was a little stunned. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to talk again, but eventually I managed to respond, 'Um, thanks, but I had quite a bit of help saving the world and all, I didn't actually do that much… But if you really want me to be the guardian of Earth I will do it. What exactly does that job entail though? What do I have to do?'

"I think Chaos laughed at me as I tried to give the credit to others, but he continued looking at me and said, 'If you choose to become guardian of Earth, you will be granted a form of immortality where you can only die in combat. That means no old age, no diseases, poisons, and assassinations would be able to kill you. Your natural abilities will slowly grow over time until you are more powerful than the big three combined. The power gain will be gradual because if I gave you all that power at once, your body wouldn't be able to handle it. I will also hide you from the gods; it will be such that they won't be able to sense you at all unless you allow them to. Your job will be to wander the Earth and help those in need from unnatural enemies. You will protect mortals and untrained demigods from monsters and the such as well as take part in any future wars with the primordials or the titans. You will also be given some powers in addition to what you currently possess. You will be able to teleport like the gods do and you will have a sixth sense of sorts that will notify you of dangers and troubles that you should help out with. You will also be given a way to communicate with others without being tracked or notifying the gods of your actions. So, do you accept?'

"I thought about it for a few minutes, then realized that I shouldn't need to think about it, it sounded like just what I needed in order to move on and be helpful. 'I accept your offer and I will serve you and planet Earth for as long as I live.' With that, Chaos sent some weird energy wave into me and I passed out again.

"Well, this is unfortunate. I was almost done with my story, but now it seems we are going to have put off the ending for a little bit. We have arrived at our destination."

My companion turned to me and said, "Oh well, maybe you can finish your story tonight after we have had some dinner. For now though, what are we looking for?"

I turned to my right and looked towards the road, it seemed to be a pretty boring day here, not much traffic, not many people trying to leave Oregon or enter it. "I believe we are looking for a demigod. A powerful one as well. Young but powerful. I believe that it is a girl and she isn't more than 10 years old." I turned once more to check the cars for anything out of the ordinary that would require me to step in and help. I looked further up the road and saw a truck coming. It looked like an old pickup truck with a worn brown paint job and a loud engine. I sensed that the truck was a problem.

The truck was still two miles up the highway so I teleported myself into the bed of the truck and listened to the goings on on the inside. It sounded like a young girl was screaming at her someone to stop the truck and let her out. I heard a smack and the girl stopped talking. I was about to head back and tell my companion what was going on, but first the guy driving started talking.

"Heh, that will teach you to run away. That's the third time you have run off, so now I'm going to start punishing you seriously for it. I don't really like being stuck with you, but your mom died and I got stuck taking care of you and I'm going to make you work to pay me back for my kindness. Now, either you start respecting me, or I will beat the respect into you. Got it?"

Normally, I would take care of this problem immediately, but in situations like this, my companion likes to dish out her own punishment to the crude guys involved. I teleported back and told her the situation. "It seems like the young girl tried running away from an abusive relative that she got stuck with after her mother passed away. He hits her and it sounds like he is planning on beating her more now that she has ran away a few times," I told my companion. As I was telling her this, I could see the rage in her eyes build. She truly looked like someone to be feared and I knew that the poor guy was going to get a truly ugly ending. I almost felt bad for the poor guy until I remembered what he had done.

She pulled her bow off her back and knocked two arrows. As the truck was about to pass us, she let them go and both of the tires on our side of the truck went bad. I heard a scream of rage and watched as the truck pulled over to the side of the road. I looked at my companion and a silent understanding went between us. I would grab the girl and help her, while she would punish the mortal guy.

As soon as the guy got out of his truck to check the tires, I teleported myself into the truck with the girl, grabbed her, and teleported into the trees beyond where they had pulled over. Naturally, the girl freaked out and screamed.

"No, shhh, be quiet. I'm here to help you. I'm here to get you away from that man, is he your uncle or something?"

"Wh-who are you?" She asked me. She was looking at me completely scared. I felt bad for her; I knew what it was like having to live with a monster of man.

"My name is not important. I am here to help you and take you someplace safe. Okay? You need to trust me." I tried to help her relax a little, but it didn't seem to do much.

"No. I don't trust you. You're just going to hit me like Walter does. I know you are. Get away from me." She tried to run away but I wouldn't let her.

"I see you don't trust men. Okay, I know just what to do with you. I am going to send you to Lady Artemis. She will help you and give you a safe place to live away from all the terrible men in the world. Does that sound nice?" She seemed to calm down a little at that idea.

"That would be nice, but why would you want to help me? You're a man. And how are we going to get there? There aren't any vehicles around." This was good. She seemed to be calming down a little.

"Okay, here is what is going to happen: I am going to teleport you to Lady Artemis. You are going to tell her your story. Then you are going to tell her that you are a daughter of Zeus. She will then answer your questions and give you a safe place to live."

"I don't get it. What are you talking about?" She seemed quite flustered now, but there wasn't anything I could do to help her since she didn't like guys.

Instead of answering her, I used my mind and felt around the country trying to locate Artemis. Once I found her location, I teleported the young girl to her. I never even learned her name. Now that that part of my job was done, it was time to check up on the fate of the girls foster father Walter.

I walked back to the road and the sight wasn't pretty. I am not a fan of torturing people and gruesomely killing them, but if you make my companion mad, you will end up regretting it as you slowly and painfully die. Anyways, this guy wasn't looking very good and he was definitely dead. It appeared that has windpipe had been collapsed preventing him from breathing or talking or screaming, and that as he had slowly died from oxygen deprivation his limbs were snapped and joints were bent the wrong way. I didn't want to look at the body so I created a mini earthquake under his body that opened a crack for his body to fall through.

My companion turned to me and spoke, "What did you do with the girl?"

"She was having a hard time trusting me and said she hated men, so I sent her to Lady Artemis to join the hunt. Her father is Zeus so she should get along with Thalia alright and build good connections. She should be alright now."

"That's good. Lady Artemis should be able to provide a wonderful home for her. So, what now? Do we head into the nearest city, or are we going to wander through the wilderness some more?"

"I'm thinking we should spend one more night out here. I hardly ever get to spend time in these coastal forests and they are one of my favorite places to be, so one more night out here and then we head to a city. Somewhere. You get to choose next."

The two of us walked through the forest a ways until we found a nice clearing and set up camp. After seeing how Walter ended up, I wasn't that hungry so I went off to train for a little while.

After several hours, I came back to camp and saw that my companion had prepared dinner. We sat quietly and ate. After dinner, we sat down by the fire that she had started and watched the stars.

"Well, I guess I can continue my story now that today's adventures are over. This is the last part."

"After Chaos knocked me out or whatever, I woke up in a forest. Somewhere. I didn't know where I was or how long I had been out. I slowly stood up and stumbled around a bit trying to figure out what was going on. I thought back on what had happened and figured I had just had the strangest dream ever, except now for some reason, I felt like there was some reason I needed to travel west. I remembered Chaos had told me that one of my new powers would be to be able to sense where there was something I needed to protect, so I followed that sense to see if my meeting with Chaos really had happened or if I was just going crazy.

"After walking for several miles, I wound up in a campground. I followed my senses and as I got close to what I thought was my destination, I heard a scream and the sounds of destruction. I ran towards the commotion and found 3 hellhounds the size of a garbage truck shredding trees and chasing a young boy who looked to be maybe eight. I killed the hellhounds and approached the boy. He told me his foster parents had left him at the campground two days prior and he had been scared and running ever since then. Then a few hours ago, these monsters started chasing him and no matter where he ran to or hid, they always found him. I asked him if he wanted me to take him to a safe place. A place where there were more people like him and he could learn about the monsters that were chasing him. He said yes so I got ready to take him. Then I realized my problem.

"'Err, just out of curiosity, where exactly are we right now?' I asked him.

"He looked at me funny but told me, 'Beaver Dam state park. In Nevada.'

"_Oh crap, _I thought. _How are we supposed to get to Long Island and Camp Halfblood?_ Then I remembered that Chaos had said I had the ability to teleport like the gods did, so I grabbed the boys shoulder and tried to focus on camp, with a bright flash of light, we disappeared from Nevada and reappeared In the middle of the camp. As soon as I realized where I was, I let go of the boy and teleported myself away. I didn't care where, just as long as it wasn't camp. Once more, with a bright flash of light, I disappeared.

"I reappeared in a meadow somewhere. I wasn't sure where. It had been a crazy day and I was exhausted. I lay down where I was and fell asleep. It was a nice sleep and I only had one short dream conversation with Chaos. Chaos told me I had done well and that I should practice my powers until I got used to them and that I should follow my senses. After that he left and my sleep was dreamless once more.

"The next day, my senses weren't pointing towards anywhere, so I figured that meant I had a day off, to train or do whatever. I decided to train. I spent the whole day teleporting and practicing my fighting. It felt as if my control over my powers had doubled already and my endurance was way higher than it had been so I was able to work for most of the day before I was to exhausted to continue.

"That night I collapsed on the ground and stared up at the stars. At first, I was thinking about Chaos and how he had created everything up there, it just made Chaos seem even more powerful, and for some reason, he had decided to give me immortality and power to protect one of his first creations. I was honored and hoped I wouldn't mess up.

"As I gazed at the start and thought though, my gaze travelled to a certain constellation. My favorite one because I knew its story and had been around when it was created. It was The Huntress. I stared up at the constellation and felt like I could relate to her. She had fallen in love with Hercules, but he had betrayed and left her just as I had once loved Annabeth but she had betrayed me. Zoë had been broken and abandoned and rescued by Artemis and then was able to live for 2000 years serving happily as Artemis' lieutenant. I had been abandoned and broken and given this new opportunity by Chaos to serve the world as a hero, my life was given a new purpose and I would do my best to not mess it up.

"As time went by, I followed my senses and saved demigods, mortals, even the occasional immortal. I never let them know my name, and in the case of the immortals, I never let them see my face. I continued training on days when my senses didn't send me anywhere and I spent time learning about the world I was now protecting.

"Every night, though, I found myself starting up into the stars. I was lonely, and I tried to find companionship by talking to the stars, especially my favorite constellation. I know it sounds crazy, but it helped fight off the loneliness I felt from being alone for so long. The only people I talked to from my past were Nico and my mother. Several times a year I would use my new communication method to talk to Nico. It was kind of like Iris Messaging, but it didn't require a rainbow or money. I just prayed to Chaos and a screen would pop for Nico and me. For my mother, I felt bad never visiting her, but I knew the second I showed up, the gods would be there to take me and I didn't want to deal with them, so once a month I would leave a letter on the doorstep for her. She began to figure out my pattern so she started leaving letters for me to pick up as I dropped off a letter. It was nice. But even with the communication I did have, I was lonely.

"One night about five years after I had started being the guardian of Earth, I was laying on my back watching the stars. I was feeling lonelier than normal because I just had helped sibling demigods reach camp safely. They always had someone with them and I was jealous of the fact. So I stared at the stars wishing I didn't have to be so lonely, when I felt something lay down next to me. I looked over and was surprised to see Chaos there.

"'What's bothering you?' Chaos asked me.

"'Nothing much, I'm just kind of lonely being the Guardian of Earth and all. I enjoy it, I just wish I had a friend to travel with.' I looked up into the stars again and found myself staring at The Huntress.

"'Well, I suppose if you really want I can allow someone to travel with you, but who do you want? You don't have many friends from your old life.'

"'I know. Just Nico and my mother. I would ask Nico, but he has his own life to live. I enjoy talking to him occasionally, but he is needed to help in the underworld and work with his father so I can't just ask him to join me, that would be selfish.'

"'Hmm, you are right. That would be a little selfish. So what do you want to do then?'

"'I'm not sure.'

"What are you staring at so intently? This whole conversation you have been fixating on one point up in the sky. What is it?'

"I pointed up to the constellation I was looking at and said, 'that constellation. The Huntress. Her name was Zoë Nightshade and she was the lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis for 2000 years before she died. She had a similar life to me. She was betrayed by the one she loved and her family disowned her. Artemis found her broken and sad and offered her a place in the hunt. Her life was given new meaning and she spent 2000 years living her new life. I only knew hew for a week, but I feel like I can relate to what she went through so I every night I talk to the constellation and it helps me feel less lonely.'

"'You know, if you want, I can ask her if she wants to join you. No one would force her to, but she could get a new life and help you with your job. If you want me to, I could ask her spirit for you and see what she says. How about that?'

"'Really? You could do that? That would be nice. Although she kinda hates men so she will probably say no, but it would be great if you would at least give her the choice.'

"After that short conversation, Chaos left. I was tired but before I fell asleep, I asked Zoë if she would be willing to work with me to help protect the Earth.

"About a week later as I was cooking myself dinner, I felt another presence appear right next to me. I looked over and saw the sleeping for of Zoë Nightshade."

**Okay, so this chapter is really long. I should probably divide it into two chapters, but I'm too lazy to do that. Hopefully you enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, well, I'm sorry. **

**Anyhow, don't expect all the chapters to be this long. Most of them will be closer to 2000 words. Probably. This chapter is 5600 words. **

** Remember to tell me any ideas you have for this story because sometimes you people can think of things that I wouldn't think of and it could make the story better. **

** Also, if there are any POV's you want, let me know and I will try to throw them in. Next chapter is going to be Zo****ë**** POV for part of it.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, here is the fourth chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Also, if random words are capitalized, I'm sorry; it's a strange habit of mine to randomly capitalize words. Also, I really like using commas, I don't know why, but I do. If it seems excessive, once again, I apologize.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or any of its related works. **

"_About a week later as I was cooking myself dinner, I felt another presence appear right next to me. I looked over and saw the sleeping for of Zo__ë__ Nightshade."_

Zoë POV

"Ah, wait, I mean I saw you sleeping on the ground. Oops, I got a little too into my story and forgot who my audience was…" Percy said. I started cracking up; it was just like Percy to do something like that.

He looked at me funny, but after a little bit joined in with the laughing as well. When we finally calmed down, I turned to him, "So, now that I know your story, do you want to know how Chaos got me to come back down to Earth for another life?"

He looked at me funny and said, "Wait, Chaos just said he would ask you to if you wanted to, he wasn't going to make you. What DID he do?"

"Well, he did give me the choice, but me actually having a brain, I had some questions. Here, listen to my short story." And so I started recounting Chaos' visit and the ensuing week.

"Well, first, when I was made a constellation, my spirit was sent to Ouronus' court. It was an interesting place. All the spirits of the constellations could roam around and mingle for all eternity and we could watch the Earth progress. The only real downside to all this was that since Hercules was a constellation, his spirit roamed around up there as well. I did my best to avoid him, but at first, he didn't avoid me. In fact, when he first saw me he thought I would actually want to talk to him. Stupid male…" I trailed off muttering curses about Hercules and stupid males until I saw Percy's amused grin. I turned away embarrassed and continued my story.

"Well, after I gave him a few choice words and made it clear to him that he would suffer worse than death if he continued following me around, he left me alone. I really wished I could have a physical body so I could shoot arrows at him and stab him and gut him like a fish, but alas, I was just a spirit and could do no such things.

"Although we could watch Earth, we didn't get to pick what we saw. Every night we saw the more important events from the day that had occurred and watched the events if we so chose. Since I didn't really have any friends in the court, that was the majority of the talking that took place and I actually started to learn modern English. Anyways, about four years after I joined the court of Ouronus, I found myself resting in my room thinking about my time spent in the hunt.

"I enjoyed my time in the hunt and I was sad that it had to come to an end, but I was happy knowing that I had served Lady Artemis well for 2000 years and had died protecting her. She had saved my life and I owed it to her to do everything in my power to protect her. I also found myself thinking about one of the stupidest people I had ever come across. He seemed to care nothing for his life and was always doing reckless and dangerous things that would probably end up with him getting killed. I didn't really care, I figured if he brought about his own death it just meant one less male in the world and the world would be better because of it.

"Over time though, I realized it wasn't blatant disregard for his life that made him do the stupid things he did, it was the fact that he put his friends and even people he didn't really know and probably didn't like that much lives above his own. It was weird. My whole life all males had ever done was abuse women and be idiots, yet right as my life was coming to a close, I came across one male who actually deserved a little bit of respect.

"I was thinking about the final battle with my father when I felt a presence appear right next to me. I looked to m y left and saw a being that was emitting a massive amount of power.

"This being must have noticed my bewildered face and spoke to me, 'Do not fear, I am Chaos and I mean no harm. I simply come to you with an offer.'

"The voice felt ancient and powerful but it didn't seem to be threatening so I bowed my head and responded, 'What is the offer you have for me, Lord Chaos?'

"Chaos turned to me and said, 'Ah, please don't refer to me as Lord or Lady, just Chaos is good enough. As for my offer, just as Artemis helped give you a second life after the unfortunate events involving Hercules, I wish to offer you a second life altogether.'

"This surprised me, but I tried not to show it. I responded, 'No thank you. I lived once for over two millennia, for now I am content to live among the stars.'

"'I thought you would say that, but before you decline, you might like to know the circumstances that have led to my offering you another life,' Chaos told me. 'You see, a few years back, I gave some of my power and immortality to a young man and gave him the position of Guardian of Earth. Lately though, he has been lonely. To try to overcome his loneliness, he talks to your constellation every night. He feels like he can relate to you. The Guardians name is Percy Jackson. I am offering you the choice to join him and the two of you would be co-Guardians, of a sort.'

"This surprised me. When he first started talking about me working with a male, I started to tune Chaos out. When Chaos said the male thought he could relate to me, I scoffed and knew for sure I was going to turn down the offer. But when he said it was you, Percy, I hesitated. Something didn't add up. 'Chaos, you said that he thought he could relate to me, but Percy should be happily spending his time with Annabeth. When I knew Percy, it was obvious how much he cared for her. What happened to make him think he could relate to me?' I asked.

"Chaos seemed to consider my question for a little while before responding, 'the details of what happened to young Perseus are his to share with you. I could tell you, but I believe it would be best if you waited to hear it from his mouth. Now, I know you don't really like males after the Hercules debacle, so before you make your decision, you should know more about Percy's life.'

"After he finished that, I felt some of Chaos' energy move towards me. When the energy touched me, I blacked out. While I was unconscious, I dreamt. I was shown your life from the time you found out you were a demigod until the end of the war with Gaea. The dreams lasted for about a week before I finally woke up again. As soon as I was awake, I felt Chaos' presence again. I turned to look at him.

"'Now that you have seen more about Percy and who he is, I must ask you for your answer. Will you work with him to protect Earth? Will you accept a new life?'

"I thought about the offer and the concept of spending eternity with a man. I figured at least with physical bodies if you did anything I didn't like I could gut you myself. 'Chaos, I accept your offer. But if I may make one small request of my own…'

"'I know what you wish to ask. Yes, I will make sure your constellation does not disappear so as not to worry Artemis. Now, get ready to be living again.'

"With those words, Chaos sent a different kind of energy wave into me and I blacked out. This time, I had no dreams. When I came to, I saw you hovering over me and instinctually punched you in the face."

Artemis POV (I wasn't sure if I should do this, but after it was requested, I decided to at least give it a try)

It had been a rather normal day for the hunt and me. I turned a male into a jackalope and allowed my hunters to hunt him down, but other than that, not much had happened. My hunters had just finished setting up camp when a bright flash blinded us all.

I figured a god, probably my obnoxious brother or Hermes, had stopped by to annoy me or deliver a message. What I wasn't expecting was a scared looking ten-year-old girl to be standing right in front of me. She was maybe 4' 10" and had shoulder length black hair. Her electric blue eyes matched my lieutenants almost perfectly. She took a quick look around and promptly fainted. I teleported myself and the young girl to the medical tent and lay her down on a bed.

Several hours later, one of my hunters came up to me and informed me that the girl was waking up. I was extremely curious as to who the girl was and how she just appeared in front of me, so I decided to go find out what she knew. I walked into the medical tent and had the other hunters leave so I was alone with the strange girl.

She rubbed her eyes warily and slowly sat up, taking in her surroundings. "I just had the strangest dream," she said. Then she saw me and she let out a little scream.

I smiled at her and said, "I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Who are you and how did you get here?"

She looked at me with confusion on her face and asked me, "You mean it wasn't all just a dream?"

"I'm not sure what the answer to your question is. How about you tell me your story and then we decide? That should work."

"Okay. My name is Lexi. I had just been caught after running away for the third time and Walter was taking me back home to California. Like normal, he seemed to be drunk and angry so he hit me and yelled at me. Then something strange happened. All of the sudden two of the tires went flat at the same time so Walter had to pull over. As soon as he got out, another guy appeared right next to me, put his hand on me, and then suddenly we were in the woods. I tried to run away, but the man wouldn't let me. He tried to talk to me, but I was scared of him because I thought he would be like Walter. I told him I didn't rust him because he was a man and he told me that he would take me to a safe place where I could have a new family. He told me Artemis would help me and that I should tell her that I'm a daughter of Zeus. I don't know that that means, but he said it was important. Before I could ask him any questions, he touched me and a bright light engulfed me. When the light disappeared, I was standing in front of you. I was so scared I passed out."

She finally finished her story and seemed to be on the verge of tears so I gave her a hug. Her story seemed incredibly strange; I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I wanted to question her to get more details about everything, but she looked like she might pass out again at any moment. I decided there was one thing I needed to know though. "What did this guy look like? Did he give you a name? What can you tell me about him?"

She looked at me and seemed to think for a moment before responding. "He scared me at first, but now when I think about it, I think he was actually a good guy, not like Walter and the other men who would hit me. He never told me his name and with his hood up, I couldn't see much of his face. All I could see were his eyes. They were a deep sea green color, other than that though, I don't know."

After that, I explained what the hunt was and who I was to her and she joined the hunt. I called Thalia in to look after the newest huntress and meet her little sister. I then went back to my tent and lay down.

I thought about Lexi's story. The description as well as the boys actions sounded like the guy that the other gods were always talking about. An unknown figure that rescued untrained demigods and sent them to camp. They also believe that he is responsible for slaying many monsters that were threatening mortals before other demigods or my hunt could get to them. This was the first time he had sent someone to me though. And his identity. No one knows who he is, but at first we thought he might be the missing Percy Jackson. The description fit him nicely, its just the powers, Percy isn't capable of teleporting himself or anyone else. Nor should he be capable from hiding from the gods for the last five and a half years. Ah well, I would send a report of this incident to my father and let him handle it. For now, I had a new huntress to be thankful for and I needed to sleep.

**Well, another chapter down. I hope you all enjoy it. I probably won't be able to update tomorrow because I'm going to be quite busy. Hopefully I can update again on Thursday.**

**Thank you for all the reviews, it is incredibly gratifying to read that people actually like my writing. **

**Remember to review so that I know what to improve on and to share any ideas you may have for my story, you never if it will end up being incorporated into it and then you can feel special. I will give you virtual cookies.**

**Anyhow, once again I say thank you for reading my story and I hope you all have wonderful lives.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, just so people know, as much as I like Percabeth, this is not a Percabeth story. Sorry if that disappoints you, but there are plenty of those stories out there if you want to read one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Zeus POV

It was the start to another day. I just yelled at Apollo to hurry up and drive the sun across the sky since he seemed to have forgotten to get up this morning, then I went and sat on my throne. Time to start another day, I thought to myself. I had just sat down on my throne when Hermes flashed in. He walked up to me and handed me an envelope.

"Just a report from Artemis. It seems that mysterious figure has made another appearance," he told me, then flashed out before I could respond.

Great, I thought, just great. At least the report gave me something interesting to think about for a while. I took out the report and scanned the contents. I seemed my daughter Lexi had joined the hunt. That didn't really surprise me, I had known how that awful man Walter had treated her, but my dear wife Hera refused to let me do anything to help Lexi. I sighed; at least she would be safe now. The report also claimed that the unknown figure we had been pursuing for the last five and a half years had rescued her and transported to Artemis. It was the first I had heard of him sending a young demigod to her.

That frustrated me. Not him helping out our children, just the fact that we knew so little about the guy. He had shown up about five and a half years ago and had been rescuing untrained, new demigods and sending them to camp. We believe that he has also been fighting monsters that attack mortals and the such, but we have no proof of that other than the fact that the monsters disappear before we can get to them. The only powers of his that we know about seem to be his ability to teleport and his ability to hide from us gods. At least we assume he is hiding, after searching for over five years and never having found him, we have to assume is intentionally staying away from us. Gah, this guy is incredibly frustrating. I feel like we need to find this guy and figure out who is, but it doesn't seem possible. He is making my life harder than it needs to be.

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind before they drove me crazy and decided to get started on the days work. I would think more about him later.

Percy POV

After Zoë finished her story, she lay down and went to sleep. I had wanted to talk a little bit more, but I figured I could wait until tomorrow to do that. I stayed up and looked at the stars, thinking once more about my old life. I decided to message Nico. It had been almost four months since I last talked to him and he deserved to know what was up with me.

I walked a little ways into the woods so as not to wake up Zoë and prayed to Chaos. "Chaos, please allow me talk with my old friend, Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades." Immediately, a mirror like screen appeared in front of me and I could see Nico sleeping. I called his name and woke up immediately.

"PERCY!" He called, "How are you doing? It's been a while since you last called. What's up? How's life treating you?"

I smiled at my old friend and responded, "I'm doing fine, actually, I feel better than I have in years. Life is treating me well right now and hopefully it stays that way this time. As for what's up, I'm travelling through a forest in southern Oregon right now, enjoying my time and looking forward to the next chapter in my life. How's the underworld treating you?"

He looked at me and smiled, "I'm glad to hear you are starting to feel better and are enjoying life again. As for the underworld, things are running smoothly and we haven't had any major problems in quite a while. Today, I got to help set up an eternal torture for some guy named Walter," I grinned when he said that, "He came to the underworld complaining about how he couldn't believe some girl had managed to kill him. As soon as he entered the underworld, I could feel the cruelty of his being so I pulled him out of line before he even made it the judges and watched his crimes. I know you don't like hearing about tortures, so I won't tell you exactly what he is getting, but I can tell you it is quite bad."

Nico smiled a slightly disturbing smile as he thought about the torture that Walter was going to receive for all of eternity and I was rather pleased to know that the cruel man was getting what he deserved in the underworld. A few moments later, he turned to me with a serious face on again, "Tomorrow the gods are going to gather to discuss your disappearance. As you know, I won't tell them anything, but I'm just curious as to whether or not you are ever going to let them know what happened to you. A lot of the gods and campers want to apologize to you and ask for forgiveness, but I refuse to allow them to. As you know, I am rather good at holding grudges so I will never forgive them, at least not until you do. Also, what exactly is going to make you so much happier now than the last several times we talked. I mean last time, you were a little happier, but all the times before that you seemed rather miserable. Did something happen I should know about?"

I spent a few moments contemplating in my mind whether I should tell him about Zoë, but eventually decided I shouldn't keep too many secrets from him. "As for why I'm happier than you have seen me, I may have a acquired a new friend to travel around with. Someone who had been betrayed as I was, and through the telling of our stories, it has helped me move on a little bit and look to the future more. As for the gods and camp, I have no plans on showing myself to them. At least not yet. If they ever do mange to find me, I will tell them something, but as I have told you, they won't ever find me unless I allow them to."

Nico looked at me and spoke, "You won't allow me to travel with you, but you still picked up someone else to travel with you? That hardly seems fair."

I tried not to feel to guilty, but I knew he wanted to travel with me. "Nico, look, you can't travel with me because you still have a home in the underworld with you father. I wish I could still have a home with the gods and demigods but I don't. I also will not take you away from your home. If you ever do lose your home, then you can come with me, but for now at least, stay with your family." I hoped that would help calm him down. He seemed to ponder what I said for a while before smiling at me.

"So, what can you tell me about your new travelling companion, friend person?" He asked me. "Who is it? Is it a demigod or a mortal? Is it a boy or a girl? How long have you been travelling together?"

I wasn't sure how much I should tell him. I knew I couldn't reveal who she was, but I wanted to at least tell him something. "It's a girl, but I can't tell you who she is. She has requested that I keep her identity a secret from all others. Because she is with me, she has acquired the same immortality that I have, although I would still rather keep that method a secret from you. We have been travelling together for six months now. Hopefully that answers your questions."

Nico got a mischievous grin on his face when I told him it was a girl. I had a feeling I knew what he was about to ask also. "So, you have been travelling with a girl for six months. Do you like her?"

He started laughing when he saw my face. "I don't know. She nice and all, but after what Annabeth did, I'm a little hesitant to take another chance with love. Who knows though? Maybe in time."

Nico grinned again, but didn't push further. We continued talking for a while before Nico asked me another question, "So, you have never told me exactly what you spend your time doing or how you gained immortality or if you gained any other powers as well. I'm just wondering because there happens to be some mystery figure out there who rescues untrained demigods and sends them to camp whose description sounds a lot like you. No one believes you are him though because you don't have teleportation powers or even the ability to hunt down demigods. I was just wondering whether or not you are him and if not, whether you have encountered him before and could tell me about him."

I sighed. I suppose I could tell Nico a little bit about what I do since I know he won't tell anyone else. "Yes that figure is me. In addition to my immortality, I gained the ability to hide from the gods and monsters as well as teleport. I also have a new sense that directs me towards things that need saving. It's kind of weird, but you get used to it. Anyhow, that is what I have spent the last several years doing. I would rather this remain secret, but do what you must. I don't want you getting in trouble because of me."

Nico looked at me for a little bit before responding, "Percy, this sounds just like the kind of thing you would do. I'm glad you have found a place in this world, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

It was getting really late, so we said our goodbyes and I ended the connection. I walked back into the clearing, lay down, and went to sleep.

Zoë POV

I woke up early the next morning. The sun was barely up so it must have been around 6:30 or so. I looked over and saw Percy sleeping contently on the ground and wondered whether I should wake him or not. I decided to let him sleep since he seemed so peaceful and probably needed a little extra sleep after the last few days. I knew that reliving his past wasn't easy for him plus yesterday we had rescued a demigod and stayed up late as I told the part of my story that he didn't know, so instead of waking him up, I went for a walk.

It was a bright day, so the morning mist burned off pretty quickly and the forest was quite lively. I could hear the small animals scurrying around, hear the birds calling and singing, I could also see animal tracks throughout the forest. It was nice knowing I still had the skills of a huntress. I walked for several hours and just enjoyed the calmness of the forest and the bliss of the wild animals. Eventually I headed back to the clearing we had been staying in and woke Percy.

It took a bit of work, but I finally got him to wake him. He seemed more tired than normal. "Hey Percy, how late did you stay up last night? It's practically 9:00 and you are still asleep."

He looked up, shook his head a little and responded, "Sorry, after you went to sleep last night I went into the forest and talked to Nico for several hours. He says he's doing fine. Oh, and he told me that he personally took care of Walters eternal torture in the Fields of Punishment. He didn't tell me what the torture was, since he knows I don't really like hearing about that kind of thing, but I figured you would want to know since you are the one that sent him to the underworld."

I smiled, glad that that horrible man had gotten an eternal torture in the underworld. "Well, it's good to know that vile human got what he deserved, now get up, you are making breakfast today and I'm hungry."

He groaned, but got up and made breakfast. After we ate, we packed up camp. Percy turned to me and asked, "Where to? It is your turn to decide our next location."

I thought about it. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go. After a little bit of thinking, I got an idea. "How about Alaska? We have never been there because it is beyond the gods, but isn't it still possible for monsters to roam there and attack mortals?"

Percy seemed to contemplate the idea before agreeing with me. He put his hand on my shoulder and we teleported to the outskirts of Anchorage. It was a nice summer day, the sun was shining and it was maybe 65 degrees. I wanted to walk away from the city and explore the wilderness here, but I knew it was time to go check up on mortal affairs in the city. Keeping up with the times was important because mortal trends and events often reflect what the gods and demigods are up to. This allowed us to blend in with the mortal world better and help out with the world of the gods without getting caught.

"Well, lets get a move on with the city. Once we finish our business here, we can explore the Alaskan wilderness for a while," Percy said. Sometimes I feel like he's reading my mind, and then I remember that he just knows me really well.

"Well, for one of your plans, I suppose it's pretty good," I said. He glared at me and started walking down the street. I laughed to myself and followed.

We didn't learn anything overly important while we were in the city. It had been a relatively mild summer in Alaska, which meant most days it was in the 60's or 70's. The Red Sox were a game and a half up on the Yankees, which no one seemed to care about. I didn't blame them. Baseball is probably the most boring game I have ever seen. Plus, it was played by disgusting males who only cared about the money. There were no strange occurrences reported. No missing people or unsolved crimes. It had been a calm summer for the people of Anchorage, yet every time I looked at Percy, he had a worried expression on his face.

"Percy, what's wrong? You have been looking worried for quite some time now, but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary here. What is going on?" I asked him.

He turned to look at me as we walked down the street and responded, "I don't know what it is. It might just be the fact that Alaska is isolated from the gods, but I can feel something wrong. There seem to be several points of conflict that I can sense and one large problem that needs to be dealt with on a small island to the south. For now though, we should rest for the night and get to work tomorrow. I have a feeling that Alaska will be quite the adventure for us."

Now I was a little worried, Percy and I had done a fair amount of this Guardian business together, but I had never seen him this worried. Also, it was only 3:00 in the afternoon, he must believe that whatever the problem is a big one; otherwise we would deal with it today. Well, there was no use worrying about it now, I decided to just try and enjoy the rest of the day and be prepared for whatever the next day had in story for me.

**Well, that would be the conclusion of chapter 5. Hopefully you enjoyed it.**

**For any baseball fans I may have offended, I apologize. I do not particularly enjoy watching baseball. I understand it requires a certain amount of skill to do the tasks involved; it just isn't much of a physically demanding game to play. As a math nerd, I love the stats involved with the game and know enough about baseball to understand the significance of certain milestones and marks.**

**Well, I wasn't planning on updating today because I was going to be busy, but I woke up really early and couldn't get back to sleep so I finished certain tasks earlier than anticipated. I got a lot of writing done before noon and finished the chapter when I got home around 8:00. **

**My life is pretty calm right now. College is going well and I don't have a job, so other than school my life is pretty boring. The good news is that I enjoy learning, so I find my classes fun. The bad news is that today I learned my dog might have bone cancer.**

**Anyways, leave a review if you so choose and if you do, it would be nice to know what you think and any suggestions you have.**

**Thanks for reading and good night all.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Nico POV

Great. Time for another meeting about the disappearance of Percy Jackson. Don't get me wrong, the guy is like a brother to me and I'm glad that the gods and campers miss him; it's just that they know I know about where Percy is and what he is up to. They also know that I won't tell them anything about where he is or what he is up to. Yet for some reason, they still force me to sit through the meeting about him and his whereabouts.

I was sitting next to my father with an impassive face on. The hardest part of these meetings is not revealing any information through facial expressions and body language. In fact, I think that's the only reason they make me come, so they can see if I will crack and accidently let slip any information on Percy. Anyways, I was sitting by my father when the throne room doors opened and the immortal campers walked in. That was everyone. The meeting would involve the Olympians, Thalia, the immortal campers, and me. Once everyone had settled down and taken a seat, the meeting began.

"As much as it pains me to miss a demigod, Perseus Jackson did save us all twice. His disappearance and therefore inability to become an immortal protector could be disastrous should any further wars come along. So I ask you all once again, has anyone seen or heard from Perseus, or even gained any potential insight as to where he may be?" Zeus' speech was pretty typical. It was obvious he didn't want to rely on demigods but since him and the other gods couldn't really get involved in the mortal world, they needed us. Percy had proven that to the gods twice.

No one responded to Zeus' question, which lead me to believe that no one had any information. That wasn't surprising; if Percy didn't want to be found, I knew that no one would find him. After a rather long silence, demigods and gods started turning to look at me. I sighed, "Yes I have I seen Percy. Last night in fact we had a short conversation. No I do not know where he is nor would I tell you if I did know. I have told you before but I suppose I should tell you again, if he doesn't want to be found, none of you will be able to find him." That was a typical response from me, but of course they still glared at me and tried to pull information out of me. I was planning on just ignoring the stares when I had an idea. Hopefully I could distract them and get the meeting to switch topics. "Fine, I will tell you guys something interesting."

As soon as I said that, they all perked up and I could tell they were listening intently. "Percy told me that a few weeks ago he ran into a hooded stranger with sea green eyes." Just as I expected, that really got their attention. Some people even gasped, the hooded figure with sea green eyes, as he is described, was as big a mystery as Percy Jackson. Any information about him would be quite useful.  
>"Well, what can you tell us about him?" Artemis snapped at me.<p>

I laughed internally because I knew how much she disliked him. He was a male, no one knew anything about him, and he had evaded her hunt for years. This mysterious guy, or Percy, really pissed her off. "Percy told me that he was wandering in the wilderness when he came across a man with a hood on. When he looked at the guys face, all he could see were his sea green eyes. The man seemed a little surprised by Percy just wondering through the woods but instead of being threatening, the man offered to take Percy to the nearest town. They had a little conversation along the way. I don't know the details of the conversation, but Percy did tell me that the man was no threat, just someone who went around helping those that gods couldn't. After they reached the town, the man just teleported away."

There was a long silence after I had spoken and with the looks everyone had on their faces, I almost cracked. Luckily, I was saved by Leo talking, "Well, at least we know he isn't a threat. Right? I mean, we assumed he didn't mean any harm, but to hear him say it himself is a good thing, right?"

That seemed to break people out of their trance and they started bombarding me with questions about the mysterious man. I answered all of their question as vaguely as possible, or just them I didn't know. After a while, the questions stopped coming and everyone was just left to think about the new information. I was hoping that with that, they would stop pestering me about Percy and end the meeting. Of course, that didn't happen.

Annabeth stood up and spoke, "This information is great and all, but you didn't actually tell us anything about Percy," she said.

_Oh, actually, everything I told you was about Percy,_ I thought to myself. But of course they didn't know that. "Why would I tell you anything about him? He asked me to keep a secret, and since I'm actually a good friend, I intend to keep his secrets well, secret. Nothing has happened in the course of the last year to make me want to tell any of you Percy's secrets," I told her, hoping that would shut her up. It probably wouldn't, but you never know.

She opened her mouth to speak again when something happened. A mirror like screen appeared in the middle of the throne room. It looked like the kind of screen that would appear whenever Percy contacted me. Luckily, no one noticed my surprised face and incredulous expression because everyone else had a similar face on. The screen began to swirl and an image started to appear.

Percy POV

I woke up early from my sleep. I looked over at the clock on the table and saw that it was only 5:45 in the morning. I groaned softly because I knew I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. Zoë and I had gotten a room in a hotel for the night. Chaos, being the ever thoughtful being who gave me my powers and responsibilities, also had thought about money. It was pretty cool, I just had to think about what I wanted in terms of money and it would appear. Any currency also.

Anyways, I got up as quietly as I could and looked out the window. The sun was already starting to rise. I thought about what the day had in store for me. As soon as we had appeared in Alaska, I got a sense of foreboding, like something big was happening. During my quest with Frank and Hazel, I had learned that Alaska was beyond the gods ability to reach and help out, so I was a little nervous being here since I figured the lack of gods made this place very monster friendly. Chances are, that's why Alaska has such a small population.

I teleported myself to the roof the hotel wee were at and looked around. A few people seemed to be up and about, but not many. The bulk of the city was behind me as I looked towards the south. I had a feeling that somewhere in the south was where the problem was. Whatever the problem was, none of the city dwellers had noticed. From what we had gathered, it had been a calm summer with no major problems, which of course made the citizens happy. This just confused me because normally with my senses, when I feel something is wrong, people in the nearby towns and cities have at least an idea that something is wrong, so how could the people of Anchorage not have any idea that something was amiss when I could feel such a large disturbance? It baffled me.

I must have sat there for quite a while thinking, because when I looked up again, the sun had risen quite a bit farther. I stood up to head back down and wake Zoë up, but I didn't need to bother with that. Just as I stood up and turned around, I saw her walking onto the rooftop from the maintenance stairs. I looked at her and smiled, "Good morning Zoë. Did you sleep well?"

She yawned and responded, "I slept fine actually. I woke up and it was 8:00 and you were nowhere to be found, so I felt around with my senses and found you up on the roof. I decided to come join you and see what was up. How long have you been here for? You seem tired."

After she said that, I noticed that I was indeed tired. Not a good sign since I knew this would be a long day. "Well, I woke up a little before six and couldn't get back to sleep, so I came up here to think about what was in store for today."

"Oh? And do tell me, what is in store for us? You seemed to be quite worried yesterday about something."

So I told her about my sense of foreboding, like something big was going on here. I told her how it was strange that the city folk hadn't noticed anything amiss either.

When I was done, she looked at me with a thoughtful expression on her face and said, "Well, we won't figure anything out just standing here talking, so lets get some breakfast and figure out what is going on."

I nodded, "That sounds like a good idea."

So we checked out of the hotel and walked into the city to get some food. After we ate, we asked around for a little bit to see if the people had any information that might be helpful. Nobody did, so we walked to the edge of the city to discuss our plans.

Zoë turned to look at me and asked, "What now? We still haven't gotten any information on what might possibly be happening. How are we going to proceed?"

She was right, we had no clue what was happening, it was too big to be a new demigod that needs saving, plus, there wouldn't be any demigods in Alaska anyways. It must be some monster, or group of monsters that was causing something bad to happen. I let my senses show me as much as they could. "It feels like there is a major disturbance on an island a little ways to the south in a mountainous area. There is a town nearby called Kodiak. I say we head there and see what we can figure out."

Zoë nodded her agreement and I teleported us to the outskirts of Kodiak. We walked through the town trying to gather any information we could, but once again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It had been a quiet and peaceful summer. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened and the citizens were all calm and relaxed.

This really bothered me. We couldn't be more than 50 miles from the problem I was detecting, and still no one seemed to think anything was wrong. Suddenly though, I had a strange thought. _Since when can you go an entire summer with nothing strange happening? People were calm and said there had been no crimes. No murders, no robbery, no assault. Where were all the criminals? It was like all the criminals had been taken before they could commit crimes. _I voiced my thoughts to Zoë, and she too seemed troubled by that. I had a bad feeling that whatever was going on on this little island had something to do with that.

We decided that we needed to see what was going on a little ways away in the hills to the west. I teleported us to an area near to the center of the disturbance I felt and we slowly crept through the woods until we could see what was going on. We hid in the trees and looked at the hillside in front of us. It was crawling with monsters and people. After looking a little closer, it appeared that the people were mining and the monsters were making sure they did their tasks. We needed to know what was going on.

Zoë and I retreated a little ways to discuss what was going on and what to do about it. "Zoë, I think these people must be the ones that would normally cause trouble, they were taken away and no one missed them so it seemed as if nothing was wrong. They seem to be forced to mine for something and the monsters are monitoring them to make sure that they obey. We need to figure out what is going on here because if there is one thing I know about monsters, it's that if they are working together, something big and probably bad is going on."

She seemed to agree with what I was saying, "Okay, so what now? We know that this is something that needs to be stopped, but how are we going to do that, and shouldn't we figure what is going on first?"

I agreed and tried to think of a plan. I had gotten a little bit better about thinking ahead and planning ever since I became a guardian. It's a rather useful thing to do. "Okay, you go check out the mines and see if you can gain any information from the prisoners. Who they are, why they are here, what they are doing. Anything. I will check out the other end of the line and see what I can gather. If anything happens, I can teleport us out of here. Try not to be seen by monsters or people, but if you are seen, get away. We don't want to raise any alarms before we are ready to shut this operation down."

She looked at me and nodded. "Okay. We should meet back here in about an hour to discuss what we found out. Good luck Percy and keep your eyes open."

With that, we went to our separate destinations. I went to the bottom of the hill and followed the path that the people and monsters were taking to carry whatever they mined. It wound around the base of the hill and a little into the forest before the people were sent back and the monsters continued the delivery themselves. The monsters consisted mostly of lastrygonians and hellhounds, but there were some dracaena as well. The path led to a cave in the hillside. The monsters took the mined rocks into the cave so I knew that was where I needed to go.

Since the monsters couldn't sense me, I followed them in, making sure to hang back far enough that they wouldn't hear me or smell me. After going maybe half a kilometer, the monsters dumped the contents of the mine cart they were pushing into a chute and then turned around and pushed the now empty mine cart out of the cave.

I left the cave before they could run into me, but I needed to know more. After the monsters had gone to pick up another load of rock or drop off the empty cart or whatever, I snuck back in to the cave. Once I got to where they had dumped their load, I looked around and sure enough, there was a passage leading farther in. I went down that passage to see what else I could find and as the path wound slowly into the hillside, the temperature dropped. Eventually, the path opened up into a new room with some torches lit on the walls to provide light. I hid in the shadows of the passage and looked around.

The cavern was fairly large. It was circular with a domed ceiling and was maybe 50 meters across. It had a rocky floor where there was a floor, but in the middle of the floor was a pit. The pit was about ten meters across and made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. In fact, this cavern reminded me of something Hazel had once told me. Something about how Alcyoneus had been reborn in a cave deep within a hillside. The similarities were scary, but Alcyoneus had just been vanquished a little over six years ago. It had to be too early for him to rise again. There was no way this could be him. I tried convincing myself of that and slowly crept towards the edge of the pit.

As much as I tried to tell myself that I couldn't be seeing what I was seeing, I knew my eyes weren't lying. I just couldn't understand how Alcyoneus could be rising again so soon after being destroyed. It seemed impossible. I probably would have been frozen standing in front of the pit for hours if voices hadn't interrupted my thoughts. I heard the scurrying of feet from the end of the room I hadn't entered in and for the first time I noticed there was another passage to the room. My trance broken, I quickly hid in the shadows of where I had entered from again, hoping to learn the answers to some of my questions.

Two lastrygonians and a dracaena came into the cavern. The lastrygonians were caring a barrel full of something and the dracaena followed behind. They walked up to the edge of the pit and the lastrygonians dumped the barrels contents into it. Once the barrel was dumped, the dracaena said an incantation and I could feel the form of Alcyoneus grow a little with the magic. The barrel must have been full of precious metals which is what the people were mining for and back where the three monsters came from they separating out and refining what they mined to dump it here and slowly bring back Alcyoneus.

I had seen enough to have a fairly good idea what was going so I crept back out of the cave, hiding in the shadows the whole time to make sure I wasn't seen. Once I was back in the forest, I crept back to the meeting place to wait for Zoë. Maybe five minutes after I got back, Zoë arrived.

"Okay, you first. Tell me what you found out," I told Zoë.

She looked a little pale which made me think what she had to say wasn't good news. "I followed the miners and watched from a distance what they were doing. It appeared to be normal mining. I was beginning to think I wouldn't learn anything useful when one of the miners suddenly tried to make a break for it. He screamed, 'This isn't what I signed up for! You told me I would get rich, instead you're treating me like a slave!' as he was running away, a hellhound jumped on him, pinning him to the ground. A lastrygonian came up to him and started dragging him away. Curious as to where he was being taken, I followed.

"I followed them down a dark corridor that seemed to go on for quite some distance. When the passageway ended, there was a thick steel door in place. It opened to reveal a prison like place where I could hear people screaming. It sounded like they were being tortured by something. The prisoner who was being dragged in paled and started screaming for someone to save him. The lastrygonian threw the man in and turned to close the door, but right before the door closed, I saw a different monster pick up the prisoner and smile at the lastrygonian. She said, 'Ah, another one trying to run away from my operation. Pity, guess that means one more prisoner for me to torture.' The thing is, the monster wasn't a normal everyday kind of monster. It was Kampê. The sight of her made me nervous and I got back here as quickly as I could to tell you what I found."

I stared at her for a little bit before I could figure out what to say, "Wait, I thought Kampê worked for the titans as their jailer or something, right?" Zoë nodded at me. "Well then what is she doing here?"

"Um, what do you mean? Are you saying this isn't a titan operation?" she asked me.

I realized I hadn't yet told her what I had seen, so I informed her of my trip. The more I told her the paler she got. I couldn't blame her for that, this was a pretty messed up operation and if it meant what I feared it meant, it most certainly was not good.

Zoë finally found her voice again and asked me, "Do you think that down in Tartarus or wherever they are, the titans and giants are plotting together to overthrow Olympus? And why would they work together? They should be enemies as well since both the giants and titans want to take over. Wouldn't they fight each other?"

I tried to calm down a little and think. "Okay, first things first. We can't get ahead of ourselves. We need to stop this operation before it can bring Alcyoneus back to life. We need to send Kampê back to Tartarus, and we need to let the gods know that they might have a major problem on their hands. Since this is taking place in Alaska, there is no way for them to know about what is taking place here."

Talking strategy and making a plan seemed to calm Zoë down a little. "How do you propose we do that? You don't want to just walk up to Olympus; they would never believe you and instead would probably try to kill you. You would need to show them what's going here for them to even consider believing you…" She trailed after that before seeming to come to the same conclusion I had, "Oh, you could open up a Chaos message like you do when you talk to Nico, and send it Olympus, the gods would see it and they could watch as we shut down this little operation. They would see the threat and then you would be able to plan accordingly."

That sounded like a good idea. "Before we do this, we need to plan. First we are going to take care of Kampê and then we go and destroy Alcyoneus' body. We do not use our names because we don't want the gods to know who we are. We also don't want the demigods to know who we are. Nico told me they were having a meeting about my disappearance today, and that means the immortal campers will be on Olympus when this message is aired to them."

She looked at me and smiled, "Sounds like a good idea, okay, enough talking, lets get this operation over with."

I nodded and prayed to Chaos to show Olympus what we were about to do. I could sense the connection had been made so I nodded at Zoë and we took off running for the mines.

**Haha, I finished the chapter. The next one should be exciting and hopefully I get it up tomorrow. **

**This chapter was a little challenging to write, but I really wanted to write it, so hopefully it's alright and is fun to read. **

**This chapter was a little under 4000 words so yeah; if you care there you go.**

**Review if you want to let me know what you think and have any idea's for me. If you want a certain POV let me know and I will do my best to throw it in.**

**Well, that's it for now. So have a fun time. **

**Good night.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Not sure if any of you guys noticed, but after the last chapter, my story was exactly 19,000 words. I was typing up the authors note and noticed how close I was to having the right amount of words to make that happen, so I typed a little extra at the end of the note to make the story exactly 19,000 words.**

**Anyways, this here is the seventh chapter. I hope you enjoy it; it should have some action in it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Athena POV

Once the image that had just appeared before us all cleared, I immediately started taking in as much as I could. There were two hooded figures; one appeared to be male while the other was female. The male give a quick nod and started turning, but before he did, I noticed he had sea green eyes. The female seemed to take the nod as a sign and turned as well. The two then began running across the side of a mountain. They appeared to be running towards an entrance in the side of the mountain where people and monsters were working. I was trying to take in more information, but the others in the throne room had exploded with questions and comments. I don't think anyone could make sense of what was being said. I looked over at my father and could tell he was getting even more annoyed than I was.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Zeus bellowed. Instantly the throne room quieted. He continued in a quieter but still angry voice, "Whatever this message is, we should watch it and then ask questions. That man appears to fit the description of the mysterious guy who ahs been saving demigods, but this is the first I have ever heard of the woman he is with here. Lets watch and see what we can learn."

I thanked my father and went back to analyzing everything I could about what we were seeing. The male ran in the lead towards the cave while the female pulled a bow off her back and drew an arrow. The girl began shooting any monster that noticed them before the monster could raise the alarm. The people that were there though weren't very smart and started cheering and screaming as soon as the monsters started falling dead and disintegrating. This got the rest of the monsters attention. From what I had just seen, the girl seemed to be a terrific shot with her bow and extremely experienced with firing on the run.

Once the monsters started noticing the two figures, they gathered together and charged them. The boy drew a sword seemingly out of nowhere. I figured it must have been enchanted or something. The girl then draped the bow back onto her back and drew two hunting knives. She appeared to fight like one of Artemis's huntresses, which just made me even more curios as to whom she was.

The boy reached the group of lastrygonians and hellhounds first. Plunging into the mass headfirst, I figured he would end up dead in seconds. Instead, he wielded the sword with amazing poise, grace, and skill and dispatched monsters everywhere around him. I was hoping one of the monsters would knock his hood off so we could get a better idea of whom the guy was. He was obviously excellently trained and powerful. His endurance was incredible as well. He was showing no sign of weariness even after going at it nonstop for almost ten minutes.

The girl had joined in the fight with the monsters not long after the boy had, and she too was extremely skilled. She seemed to move like a wild animal through the mass of monsters and didn't seem to get hit by anything. These two fighters amazed me. They had to be demigods, but no one knew who they were which confused me. If they weren't demigods, then who were they? And regardless of what they are, how had we never seen these two before? We knew the guy existed, but no one had seen him before, and the girl was a total mystery. How could two people of such immense power have avoided our detection for such a long time?

I was brought out of my thoughts as the two entered the mineshaft. The boy was in front still with his sword out, while the girl had gone back to her bow. Every time a monster appeared, she would shoot it before it could raise the alarm. The two clearly knew what they were doing. I wondered if they had scouted this place out already and if so, why they hadn't done this the first time they came through. I was also trying to figure out what was so significant about this place that they decided to reveal themselves to us gods. They had seemed perfectly happy with us knowing nothing about them until now. Why choose now to reveal themselves? Why here? What was going on? I needed more answers, which meant I would have to keep watching and hoping that the answers would become clear.

After several minutes, the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. It was well lit and it appeared that the humans were being forced to do some mining while the monsters watched them work and punished anyone who happened to slack off. The two hooded figures stopped at the entrance of the cavern, probably to let us all see what was going on. I figured this had to be planned out. They wanted us to see what was going and they had already scouted this place. They were well prepared for this.

After a few seconds had passed, the girl nudged the boy with her elbow and he walked from the shadows into the cavern. He yelled something no one could understand and all the monsters and people turned to look at him. He had his sword out and drew all the attention to himself. The monsters ran at him, and while they focused on him, I could see monsters falling left and right to well-placed arrows. The girl seemed to have a never-ending supply of them. The monsters in the cavern consisted of lastrygonians and hellhounds like before, but there were also dracaena mixed in now.

By this time, the monsters had reached the man in the middle and he was once again slicing and dicing with his sword. His movements were so fluid and connected it seemed impossible. He appeared to be dancing with his sword and his movements were always a few steps ahead of the charging monsters. The strategy was rather good. He had enchanted the monsters with his movements, which gave him an advantage in fighting them, while they were too busy watching him and fighting him to notice their numbers being thinned out by the archer. After maybe five minutes, the monsters were just ashes on the ground.

As the two continued to trek further into the cave, the girl turned and yelled at the prisoners, "Leave now. This cave won't exist for much longer and if you aren't out of here when it is destroyed, well, you probably won't like the results." She then turned back to the front and continued the charge. A few minutes later they arrived at a massive metal door. They stopped.

The boy turned to the girl and said, "This is the prison you told me about right? When we enter, I will distract her while you free the prisoners and get them out of here. Take care of the little monsters as well. Once you finish, if I'm still engaged, please help out." The girl nodded her approval and the two backed away from the door.

I was curious to see how they would get through the door. It looked rather impenetrable. Suddenly, the ground started to shake around the door, the walls shook as well, I could hear the sounds of metal snapping and giving way, and the door fell over into the room it concealed. It appeared as if one of the two had created a small but powerful earthquake just around the door. I glanced at Poseidon since that would be one of his powers and he had apparently come to the same conclusion because he appeared thoughtful and a little confused.

I looked back to the screen to see the boy walked into the room, once more drawing the attention to himself. As powerful as he seemed to be, I was a little worried; I mean the guy had to have a limit to endurance and so far he had done nothing except fight monsters nonstop and possibly be responsible for a mini earthquake. Seeing as I couldn't interfere at all though, I pushed the thought out of my and and continued watching. As soon as he walked in, the girl followed in the shadows and seemed to walk towards what appeared to be a wall of cages.

Luckily, the screen only showed the cages for a brief second because what was in them was pretty gruesome. Hades seemed mildly impressed by what was shown. The people in the cages all appeared to be broken in mind and body. Maybe of them had broken limbs and bruised bodies. Dried blood was caked to the skin and in some cases fresh blood flowed to cover the old blood. Many of the people were tied down in painful and unnatural positions that made me cringe. Thankfully, after a few seconds, the screen went back to focusing on the man while the woman did whatever she was going to do to free the prisoners.

The first thing I noticed about who was facing the man was that it was a woman. She appeared to be ancient and part dragon. I gasped as I realized who it was. "Kampê!"

The throne seemed to darken a little at the mention of the jailor of the titans. No wonder the prisoners had looked so broken, with Kampê as a jailor, they were lucky to be alive. What was she doing alive though? She couldn't have reformed already; after all she had just been defeated not even ten years ago. But it was obviously her, something was going on. Something big. Maybe this is what they were trying to show us. Kampê was alive again and therefore maybe other powerful monsters were out that we should be on guard for. I also wondered how the man planned on fighting her alone. She was one of the most powerful and ancient monsters in existence.

Kampê drew her twin poison scimitars and snarled at the man. She began talking in the ancient language so I wasn't sure if the man understood her or not, but I did. She said, "You dare to interfere with my plans? This operation runs deeper than you can imagine. I don't know who you are or how you found out about this going on up here in Alaska, but you shall die here and our plans shall resume. Your true enemy is darker and more powerful than you could even believe."

A few things worried me about that speech. One, she said they were in Alaska. That was no a good thing. It also explained why us gods had no knowledge that this was happening. The other thing that bothered me was talk of the true enemy. We had recently defeated the titans, Typhon, and put Gaea back to sleep. I couldn't think of what other super powerful dangerous enemies we might have. Before I could ponder much more about that, the man drew his sword once more, but this time, he had one in each hand.

Before attacking, he responded to Kampê's speech. "You are right. I have no clue how powerful the true enemy is or who that enemy is. What I do know is that it is my duty to protect this planet and you are threating the world's safety. I assure you, if greater evils arise, I will do everything in my power to stomp it out." After delivering his speech and before I could think about what he had said, he charged Kampê.

His twin swords whirled as he blocked each one of Kampê's strikes. She couldn't seem to overpower him and her poison wasn't dripping onto him, it was almost like the poison was being repelled from him. However, as strong as the man was, and as good as his technique was, he couldn't seem to hit Kampê either. The two adversaries were giving it everything they had with their swords, but neither would give an inch. Kampê's massive size should have given the man a slight advantage, but every time he tried to duck into her, an animal head would jump out from her midsection and snap at him, forcing him to retreat. The two fought for five minutes, and then ten minutes, and still they fought. I knew that the man was only waiting for his partner to finish her task so she could aid in the defeat of this monster, but I wasn't sure how much longer he could last. He was finally showing signs of tiring.

He stopped fighting as aggressively, instead opting to play more of a defensive game. Kampê noticed this and began pushing him harder and harder. She backed him towards a wall and then tried to work him over into a corner. She was looking incredibly pleased with herself and was about to swing at the exhausted man when he just disappeared in a flash of light. An instant later he appeared right behind her and drove his double swords into her back. At the same instant, an arrow went through her skull. It flew with so much power that it passed clean through her skull and imbedded itself in the wall right behind where the man had been standing a moment earlier.

All of us gods watched in shock as Kampê slowly disintegrated. The demigods appeared to be as stunned as we were, especially my daughter who had fought Kampê once before. The man appeared a little bit winded but otherwise alright. The woman was perched on top of a cage about 45 feet in the air. As we watched, she climbed down and walked over to the man.

She grinned at him and chuckled a little, "Have a little trouble with the big bad Kampê? You looked like you were getting a little worn down there so I decided to jump in."

He glared at her a little bit before responding, "I was doing fine, thank you very much. I was just testing out my sword skills a little and since this isn't really an ideal location for my other powers, I decided to see how I could do against an ancient giant sword fighting dragon woman. I think I did alright, but once I noticed you were done, I decided to let you join the fight and worked her away from you to make sure she didn't see you. My plan worked perfectly. Anyways, we have more important things to do than bicker about my little fight with Kampê, the gods need to see the true threat that this place offered. There shouldn't be as many monsters since this was where the brunt of the work was done, but stay on guard."

That worried me. I had assumed, or at least hoped, that Kampê was the reason they were showing us this place, but from what he had just said, there is a bigger threat. I wondered if maybe a titan was actually running this place or something. I wasn't sure what it was, but whatever it was, it appeared to worry the man a lot more than facing Kampê one-on-one had.

I watched as the two trekked out of the mineshaft and back into daylight again and wondered where they were going. Once they started following the lay of tracks for mine carts, I assumed they were going to the refinery or wherever the mine carts were taken. Then I had a really bad thought and tried my hardest to push it out of my mind because there was no way it could be possible.

The two hooded figures walked in silence along the path until they reached another cave. That seemed a little odd; they were carting whatever they mined from one cave to another. Once they entered the cave, I noticed a few differences. First of all, this one was lit a lot worse than the first one. Second, this one seemed a lot earthier. Fewer rocks and more dirt. I was really starting to get worried now. Eventually, they stopped before a large room. It was circular with a domed ceiling and was lit with torches around the walls. In the center of the room was a massive pit. I began to feel really really bad about what was going on here.

Before continuing into this room and showing us what was in the pit, the man spoke to us. He didn't turn to face us, but as he spoke I felt as if he was staring right at me. He said, "The true threat of what we found here is something that you might have a hard time believing, I know I had a hard time accepting it, in fact, I still want to believe it isn't true. Unfortunately, I don't think that we should deny that this is happening. As you know, Kampê was one of the most powerful monsters that worked for the titans. She is ancient and very powerful. The fact that she is planning would lead one to believe that she is trying to help the titans to rise again. For all we know, she might be doing that. But at this location, that was not her goal. Her goal was what is in this pit. The true terror. When people mine, what are they usually looking for?" He asked us.

I don't know if he wanted us to answer, or if he was just giving us time to think about that, but a few seconds later he continued. "People mine for precious metals and jewels. Riches of the Earth. What I discovered is that the riches of the Earth were being mined and thrown into this pit here. Do any of you know what that might possibly mean?"

I believe that every single god knew what that would mean as well as some of the demigods. All the ones that had figured out what that might mean had grown pale. The man started walking towards the pit with his companion following right behind him. He leaned over the pit and we saw what was within. There was a giant body slowly forming and it appeared to made of solid gold.

No one made a sound. We had just defeated the giants and put Gaea to sleep a few years ago, it was way to early for them to be possibly rising again. What was going on here? I wanted to scream in frustration. None of this made any sense. Why was Alcyoneus being revived? Why was Kampê, A loyal monster of the titans helping revive him? How could they be reviving so quickly? I was going crazy, none of this made the least bit of sense.

The man looked up from the pit and spoke again, "I have no clue what is going on. We found this place today and we saw what was going on, we decided this threat was something that the gods needed to know about, because the two of us wont be able to stop all of the evil in the world alone. We will help in our way and do our best to take care of the problem ourselves, but you need to know what is happening because we can't take care of all this alone. Also, what Kampê said about not knowing who the true mastermind behind this is, that worries me. It's too early for it to be Gaea again but Kampê seemed to believe that it was something just as powerful, if not more so. I will not sit around and speculate here. For now, I must destroy the partially reformed body of the giant."

With that, he turned walked to the entrance to the room, faced the pit and raised his hands. Immediately, cracks began forming in the cavern ceiling and walls. Dust began trickling down and rocks started falling and dissolving into dust. It was as if he was killing the earth itself. Then I saw the water that was amassing above the pit. He had just drained water from rocks to the point that they crumbled to dust. That was insane. He then directed the water into the pit and I could only assume what the water was doing to the giant. Probably tearing the partially formed body to shreds and then dragging the pieces of it way into the ground and far apart.

After a few minutes, he lowered his hands and then walked out of the cave alongside his partner. Once they were back outside and into the forest, they walked about 100 meters down the path that had led them here and stopped. They turned to face the cave and again the man raised his hands. This time, a massive earthquake struck the mountain. This earthquake was the size of the ones Poseidon created when he was his angriest. At least magnitude ten. Maybe even stronger. They really crazy thing was that the earthquake was being contained solely to the mountainside and the cave within it. The level of power and control that would take is astounding. I don't even think Poseidon could do such a controlled but powerful quake. It was terrifying.

After a minute or so, the man seemed satisfied with his work and stopped the quake. He didn't even seem to be drained very much from using so much power. I wasn't sure who the man and his partner were, but after what they had shown us, I was truly hoping that they were indeed on our side.

He finally turned towards so we could see his face, but it was concealed by the hood he was wearing the shadows of the forest. All we could really see were His sea green eyes. They looked to be filled with power and peace, love and pain, care and understanding. After a few seconds he spoke, "Olympians, I had not been planning on revealing myself to you, at least not at this point in time. Now that you have seen me though, I will tell you a little bit about me. I am a Guardian of the Earth. I care nothing for the rulers as long as they are not a threat to the wellbeing of the planet. I fight to save those you cannot due to the ancient laws and the fact that some problems will slip through your fingers. Do know that you shall never find me if I do not want to be found. I would recommend that you do not try to search for me because you would merely be wasting your time. Now that we have taken care of this little problem in Alaska, I will allow my partner to talk to you and then we shall cut this connection and leave. You can say whatever you want, but we can't hear you so don't expect any of your questions to be answered."

He then stepped back out of the picture and his partner came forward. Once again we could not see the face, we could just her deep brown eyes, which seemed to be filled with knowledge and wisdom, pain and happiness, understanding and purpose. She didn't have as much to say as her partner, "I am the other Guardian of the Earth. What you saw today was how powerful we are as well as some of our more basic powers. There is much more that we can do. We will do our best to protect this world and those who inhabit it. Do not search for us for we cannot be found."

After she finished talking, the connection was severed and the screen disappeared leaving a room full of astonished and bewildered gods and demigods.

Poseidon POV

That man was powerful. He had my powers and wielded them with more control than I could. The girl had also said that those were only the basics of their powers we had seen. If that was really true, I feared the man might be even more powerful than I was. The idea sounded preposterous and yet we had seen what he was capable of and heard that he is actually capable of doing even more.

He also had my eyes. He had to be a son of mine, but my children couldn't teleport or hide from the gods the way this man had and claimed he could. I wasn't sure what to think about who he was. He reminded me so much of Percy, but it couldn't be him, could it? And if it was him, how had he gotten so much stronger and gained his new powers? What was going on here?

Artemis POV

The girl's eyes reminded me of Zoë. Her skill with the bow and hunting knives reminded me of my hunters. She had more skill with the weapons than my best hunters though; she could rival my own skill with the bow and knives. The grace with which she had moved was exactly the way I trained my hunters to move. Her ability to take down monsters non-stop was incredible. She had also shown quite a bit of stamina. It isn't easy fighting a horde of monsters nonstop, but she had done it with the ease of an experienced veteran. She clearly knew combat inside and out.

It was scary, the idea that the titans and giants might be working together and rising. It really freaked me out. There was no way that the demigods we had could stand up to both of those armies at the same time, but if those two Guardians as they called themselves helped us, we might have a chance to do it. They had both seemed to be as powerful as a god, if not more so. It was hard to believe that they were stronger than they had shown us, but after seeing how easily they had accomplished their task, I believed that they were as strong as they claimed to be.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the girl's eyes out of my head. Or the boys either, they both seemed familiar. The eyes reminded me of Zoë and Percy. The man could easily have been another son of Poseidon so I didn't have too much trouble dismissing the idea that he might be Percy, but the girls eyes, I had only met one other person with eyes like that and she had died trying to save me. There was no way that she could be Zoë though, which just left me more confused. I tried to focus on my father again because he was trying to get everyone's attention again now that the message had cleared. I guess we had quite a bit to discuss now.

He cleared his throat and spoke, "Well, that was quite the show and we learned quite a bit. I'm sure we all have things we would like to discuss and questions we would like answered, but I think we should wait until tomorrow to discuss this. That should allow us to settle down a little and think more rationally. This meeting is adjourned until noon tomorrow." With that, he flashed out.

**That would be seven chapters done. In all honesty, I'm not sure how long this story will end up being; chances are it will be long though.**

**I know a lot of you guys appreciate daily updates, but I'm not sure how long I will be able to do that for. The farther I get into the story, the longer that chapters seem to be getting and that means it takes longer to write.**

**I must say I really enjoy writing this story. As much fun as it is to read these stories, writing them is incredibly fun. When I would read stories, I was constantly thinking about how I would do things differently, but as an author, I can finally dictate the story to go the way I want it to. It's a really cool experience.**

**Several of you have expressed your enjoyment of the originality of the story. That was one of the things I tried for with this, I knew I would have to give into some of the clichéd parts of chaos stories, but I have tried my best to make my story different so that it can provide a new story for people to enjoy. I am really glad that so many people to like my story.**

**If there is anything you want me to different or if you have recommendations for the plot or different POV's let me know in a review or PM and I will do my best to accommodate your wishes.**

**Thank you all for reading, and good day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**So far I have really enjoyed writing this story. I hope that you guys have had as much fun reading it as I have had writing it.**

**Anyways, here is the eighth chapter, so enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Daniel POV (well, this should be fun)

I was in a bad mood. It was the worst time of the year. The meeting to discuss the whereabouts of my idiotic and cowardly brother had just taken place. It peeved me that people still cared about him, he had left camp of his own choice, and he should stay gone. I was better than him anyways. He had trained me to use my powers and swordfight, but as soon as he realized that I had surpassed him, he got all pissy and left camp.

That night at campfire, the immortal campers who had been at the meeting, which was all of them except for me, told the whole camp about what had taken place and what they had learned.

Everyone seemed focused on this new information about the mysterious guy who was apparently a Guardian of Earth or something, but I had something else on my mind. I stood up and spoke, "So basically, you learned nothing about my cowardly brothers whereabouts. You know what, I think he probably got himself killed and his spirit was to stupid to make it to the underworld."

Annabeth glared at me and spoke, "Shut up Daniel. Percy was a better person than you could ever be. He was also stronger and a better fighter. If you aren't going to be helpful, just shut up and leave us alone."

I laughed at what she had said. "You think Percy is better than me? That sure isn't what you would say between our make out sessions. You always told me I was the best son of Poseidon to ever be born. Remember?" I laughed again as she tried to hold back tears and ran out of the amphitheater.

All the other immortal campers started glaring at me, but they didn't say anything because they knew I would tell them similar things as to what I had told Annabeth. This just made me laugh harder. My friends joined in as well.

Before things could get out of hand and have a fight break out, Chiron stomped his hoof to quiet everyone. "That is enough campers. Daniel, show some respect to the campers and Percy Jackson. Now, everyone go to bed, it's getting late and tomorrow is going to be a big day. Think about we have learned and sleep on it."

As I left the amphitheater with my friends, I shot smug looks at the other immortal campers before heading off to my cabin and going to sleep.

Percy POV

"Well, what now?" I asked. I had just cut off our connection to Olympus and wanted to know what our next move should be.

Zoë looked at me and said, "I think we should rest. It has been a busy day and you seem a little tired. As for what we do tomorrow, that is up to you. I would like to stay here in Alaska and explore a little bit, but if the titans and giants are trying to make a comeback right now, we should probably try and stop that."

Like usual, what she said made sense. I felt outwards with my senses, trying to pick up any other major trouble spots like the one we had just dealt with. I couldn't find any. "Well, currently there are no signs that the titans or giants are working on rising in a different location. If I had to guess, they were probably hoping that once Alcyoneus was reborn here, he could bring back the others, since that plan failed, now they have to find a new way to get back. It seems crazy that they are already trying to rise again, but they aren't close to succeeding yet, so for now I think we are safe. It could be a while before another attempt at revival is made."

Zoë seemed to ponder what I was saying before responding, "That does make sense. It isn't exactly easy to rise from Tartarus, so I wouldn't be surprised if it took another few years or even decades before they made another attempt at it. Since there doesn't seem to be anything major going elsewhere, does that mean we are going to spend time up here in Alaska?"

I could tell Zoë really wanted to spend time here. I don't know if I had ever seen her this excited about being somewhere before. "Alright. We can stay up here for now. I am feeling a slight disturbance within Denali, so we should head there and see what's up."

Zoë agreed with me, so I teleported us into the national park. We set up camp for the night and relaxed.

After we ate, we lay down and looked up at the stars and talked. That was a common occurrence for us. We talked about what had happened today and what we had learned. We discussed the impact these events could have on our futures and the future of the world. We talked about life in general. It was kind of strange; I mean we had spent the last six months travelling together with only each other for company, and yet we still had plenty of things we could talk about. After talking for a while, we settled into a comfortable silence.

After a while, as I was beginning to drift off, Zoë asked me a question, "Hey, Percy?"

I looked over at her, "Yeah?"

"Do you miss your old life? Do you ever think about it and wish that things had gone differently? That you could go back in time and prevent the pain so that you wouldn't be hurt?"

I thought about it. I mean, of course I wished that my friends hadn't forgotten about me and traded me for my brother. I wished that Annabeth hadn't cheated on me and ripped apart my insides. But at the same time, I really liked my new life. After thinking about this for several minutes I answered her, "I wish that my friends hadn't hurt me. That I could still I don't know, be friends with them, I guess. But this new life I am living as a Guardian of Earth is nice. It is different from my old life and I think I like it more than what I used to do. I no longer have to worry about prophecies or being a leader. All I have to do is help people and stay hidden. I get to do what I like the most, I have a loyal friend who would never betray me, and overall, I'm quite happy with it. As much as I wish my friends hadn't hurt me, I think at the same time I am glad they did, because the hurt they caused me allowed me to have my current life. I wouldn't trade what I have right now for the world."

I continued gazing up at the stars, wondering of Zoë was going to respond to what I had said. After several minutes, I decided to ask her a similar question, "What about you, Zoë? Do you ever wish you were still a Hesperide? Or how about the lieutenant of Artemis?"

She seemed to ponder my question for a bit before answering, "I do not miss being a Hesperide. I was never particularly fond of my sisters and my father wasn't a very nice guy either. What saddened me was that when I thought I had found a way to leave, my hero abandoned me and left me alone in the world. Being a hunter of Artemis was different though. She provided me with a nice home and a caring family, all I had to do was serve loyally. For 200 years I was happy to forsake boys and serve as her lieutenant. She had given me so much, I was willing to die for her. Right before I died though, I was able to find respect for a male. The first male I had any respect for ever since I joined the hunt. Now, I get to travel the world as I once did as a huntress, except I do not serve anyone except for Chaos and myself. I bear no responsibility to higher ups and instead can care for the planet as I see fit. I also have a wonderful friend who will never abandon me or betray me to work alongside for the rest of time. I enjoy my new life and would not give it up for anything."

I lay there, thinking about what she had said. It was similar to what I had said, but had certain differences. She seemed bitter towards her first family, which I could understand. With Atlas as a father, it probably wasn't the nicest family. But she had said she would rather travel with me than the hunters and Artemis. That made me quite happy. I thought back on what Nico had asked me about whether I liked Zoë or not, and realized that maybe, just maybe, I was starting to fall in love with her. That was a happy thought and a scary thought.

The last time I had fallen in love, I had been betrayed and abandoned. I had no particular want to be in love once more. On the other hand, Zoë too had been betrayed and abandoned by her first love, so if she did actually like me back, there was probably no chance of her betraying me, since she knew what that felt like. I decided I would give it time. See how my life went from here and whether my feelings would grow over time.

I gazed up at the stars and thought about this and what the future may hold, and before I realized it, I had fallen asleep.

Thalia POV

I could tell that Artemis was bothered about something. I mean, we were all worried about what we had seen and learned during the meeting today, but something more seemed to be bothering her. She was sitting alone outside of her tent just gazing up at the stars. I decided to figure out what was up.

I walked over to Artemis and said, "My lady," I bowed my head quickly, "What seems to be troubling you? It seems to be something more than what we learned today."

She slowly lowered her head from the stars and looked at me. After several seconds she turned her head back up to the stars. "Thalia, tell me, did you see the girls eyes?"

I wasn't sure what she was getting at. "Yes I did. The boys eyes as well."

She waited a few seconds before speaking again, "I don't really care about the boy. The girl though, her eyes reminded me of Zoë's eyes. I had never seen anyone else with eyes quite like hers until I saw that girls eyes. And her skill with the bow and hunting knives, it was remarkable. Possibly even better than my own skill. The way she fought and then her eyes, it just reminded me so much of Zoë I almost believed it was her. So I am sitting out here now, gazing at her constellation to remind myself that Zoë truly did pass on."

She stopped talking and I saw a tear roll down her face. Zoë had been her lieutenant for such a long time, the two had formed a close bond. Seeing someone who reminded her so strongly of Zoë was quite hard on her. I wasn't sure what to say to try and comfort her, so I didn't say anything. I sat next to her and watched the stars and hoped that maybe someday, I would be as close to Artemis as Zoë had once been. I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until I woke up the next morning in my bed.

Nico POV

I knew that Percy had told me he had gotten stronger, but what he did today blew my mind. I couldn't believe the ease with which he had defeated the monsters or the fact that he had fought Kampê, alone, and won. I mean sure, his companion shot an arrow through her skull, but Percy had just jabbed two swords into her back, she was going down anyways. And then the way he had destroyed the partially formed body of Alcyoneus and then destroyed the cave with an earthquake, I began wondering if he was more powerful than his own father. I had glanced up at Poseidon and he looked quite pale. I wondered if he had been having a similar thought as me, about the mysterious man being stronger than him.

Percy's strength wasn't the only thing that amazed me though. His companion, who I had only recently learned about, was as good at fighting as Percy was. She used a bow and hunting knives instead of swords, but she was clearly as skilled and strong as Percy. She also fought like a huntress, which confused me. Thalia hadn't mentioned any huntress' leaving the hunt in the past six months, and I couldn't think of anyone else who would fight like that. At least not with that level of skill. Artemis had seemed impressed by the girl as well, and when we saw her eyes, Artemis had let out a small gasp that I don't think anyone noticed except for me. I wondered if Artemis knew who the girl was, but since she didn't announce anything, I doubted it. If she did know, I would find out tomorrow since we were going to have another meeting to discuss the message.

The subject of the meeting frightened me. The idea that so soon after the last two wars the evil deities responsible for them were already trying to make a comeback scared me. So did the mention of the 'true evil' that Kampê had mentioned. I wondered what was going on. Percy hadn't mentioned anything about this threat the last time we had talked, so it must not have been something he had known about at that point. I wondered what he was going to do now.

I thought about Percy and his friend and the threat that was approaching us, and as I did, I slowly drifted off.

Ares POV

It was in a pretty good mood. Today had been a good day. No, not just good, it had been an excellent day. I had been expecting it to be a rather boring day. It was the yearly meeting to discuss where that worthless son of Poseidon had wondered off. Gah, just thinking about him makes me mad. Percy Jackson. He embarrassed me when he was only twelve years old and had continued making my children look like fools ever since. No matter how hard I had tried, I just couldn't get rid of him. Then one day, he just up and left us all. I was thrilled. The rest of the gods weren't though, in fact, they insisted on having a meeting every year to discuss him. I hated that day.

I had expected this meeting to be as boring and painful as any other, and it started out looking like it would be. I was about to give up and go to sleep when something interesting happened. A screen appeared and we got to watch some excellent fighting. It had been years since I had seen such marvelous fighting and I loved it. Then it got even better, we were shown that Kampê was trying to revive Alcyoneus. That meant that there would probably be a massive war in the near future. I was absolutely thrilled thinking of all the fighting. The maiming, blood, death, everything. I couldn't wait.

I was so excited for this upcoming war, I couldn't sleep. So instead, I went to the arena and practiced all night long.

Annabeth POV

After I ran out of the amphitheater, I went down to the beach and cried. Daniel pissed me off to no end, but what he had said was true and all it did was remind me of how badly I had messed up.

When Percy first disappeared, I didn't really care. I still thought Daniel was the greatest guy ever. Even when the gods began freaking out over his disappearance, I still didn't really care that he was gone. I became immortal with the other hero's, and was looking forward to living forever with Daniel.

About a month later, when it appeared Percy really wasn't coming back, Daniel dumped me. I couldn't believe it. I asked him why and he told me, "I only dated you and pretended to like you to hurt Percy and get him to leave. Now that he really is gone, I have no need to be with someone who was ever stupid enough to like my idiot of a brother. I most certainly don't need his sloppy seconds." He then walked off, leaving me crying on the ground.

During the course of the next several months, I as well as many other campers began realizing how badly we had misjudged Daniel and how badly we had wronged Percy. I couldn't stand the thought of how stupid I had been and the memories I had at camp were too much for me. I went home and lived with m father for the next year before I could manage to return to camp without breaking down. No one knew what had happened to Percy except for Nico, and Nico was being a stubborn jerk and refused to tell us anything. He claimed that he was the only _true_ friend that Percy had and that he wouldn't reveal Percy's secrets. All I wanted to do was apologize and Nico wouldn't let me.

Stupid Daniel. Every time I would try to defend Percy, he would remind me of what I had done. It hurt and I couldn't stand it. I wanted to kill Daniel, but I knew that I couldn't. So instead of taking my anger and frustration out on Daniel, I would run down to the beach and cry, just as I was doing now.

I knew that Percy probably hated me for what I had done and he would never love me again, but all I wanted to do was find him and apologize and hope that maybe, just maybe, he would forgive me and we could at least be friends again.

I cried until I couldn't anymore, and then I fell asleep on the beach. I dreamt about the good times I had had with Percy.

**Chapter 8 is complete. I know it is shorter than the last couple chapters, but this one is mostly filler anyways.**

**I wanted to show different people's reactions to what had occurred during the meeting before continuing.**

**Percy ran away at the end of the summer. Five and a half years later, and it is towards the end of summer again. Haha, oops. Didn't really think that one through to well. Sorry for the slight inconsistency.**

**Other than that, I think I'm doing a decent job with this story. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it.**

**Review if you want to tell me what you think of my story or have suggestions or what specific POV's.**

**Earlier, someone asked for the POV of someone who Percy rescued and sent to camp, I think I will try and throw that in sometime in the next few chapters.**

**Anyways, I'm going to go start on the next chapter, so have fun until I post it.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Writing this story is getting to be really fun. I'm doing my own research into the Greek myths and legends and hopefully it will make this story better.**

**Onto chapter 9 we go. This will hopefully be an enjoyable read.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Zoë POV

I woke up early. Before even Percy woke up, which is rare. He almost always wakes up before I do. I thought back to our conversation the night before and wondered about what exactly it meant. I was beginning to feel like I might actually be falling in love with him, but that was preposterous. After what Hercules did to me, I had vowed to never fall in love again, to never let myself be vulnerable. I got up and decided an early morning walk would help to clear my head.

Denali was gorgeous. I had always wanted to visit Alaska because as long as I was with Artemis, we could never come here because it is beyond the gods. I was really glad that we didn't have to leave for several more days. Right now, we were in a forested area in order to provide us with cover to help hide us from the mortals. I walked through the forest to a little stream. The water was freezing cold, probably because it was glacial melt. I decided to follow the river upstream for a ways.

I walked and thought about the day before. Kampê had been trying to revive Alcyoneus, which would mean that the titans are working with the giants. She had also said that there was a true evil that was organizing the whole thing. Who or what could be powerful enough to get Kampê to reform so quickly and make it possible for the giants and possibly titans to rise again so soon after being vanquished? Gaia had just put back to sleep and so she couldn't be the one responsible for this. What else did that leave?

The longer I walked, the more the true evil behind this worried me. It must be a truly powerful force, and I didn't like the sound of that. I was so distracted by my thoughts, I didn't notice the hellhound until it lunged at me. My instincts took over and I stabbed the hound with both of my hunting knives, causing it to dissolve. The attack woke me from my thinking and I realized I had been walking for over an hour. Percy would probably be up by now and wondering what I was up too. I decided to see just how quickly I could get back to out campsite.

I love running through the wilderness. There is no pollution to clog your lungs or dull your senses, the ground is soft under your feet, and there are no people to get in your way. I made fairly good time and was back to the campsite in about 15 minutes. As I had guessed, Percy was indeed awake.

"Good morning Percy. I take it you slept well?"

He turned and looked up at me, "Yes, as a matter of fact I did. How did you sleep though? You must have been up for quite some time by now, seeing as you look like you just got back from some morning exercise."

"Well, I woke up before you did and didn't want to bother you, so I went for a little walk. Ran into a hellhound several miles upstream, then came back to camp to wake you up. Seeing as you are already up, how about you make some breakfast so we can get around to exploring the area and doing what needs to be done."

We spent the next several days exploring Denali and slaying the few monsters that were around. The night before we were going to leave was a night just like the others we had spent here. Or at least it started that way.

Percy and I were both asleep when some movement in the trees around us woke me up. I immediately shook Percy awake and we drew our weapons. I had my bow at the ready while Percy had his dual bronze swords. (Chaos had given Percy's old sword a slight upgrade and changed its appearance slightly to prevent it from being recognized.) We were prepared to attack whatever beast may appear before us, but what stepped out of the trees was no monster.

A tall male appeared before us. He had short black hair and pitch black eyes, he was fit and held himself with poise. He had pale skin and a sense of doom was being emanated from him.

He looked at us and spoke, "Lower your weapons Guardians, I am not here to harm you or this planet, merely to warn you. I am Moros, the god of doom. Although you can hide from the gods, you cannot hide from the night. She always knows where you are and she wishes to pass a warning on to you. She says that you cannot stop the coming evils and that should you continue to interfere, you will be destroyed. The night grows stronger and the birth of a new world is just around the corner. I have delivered the warning of my mother, so now I shall take my leave."

With that, Moros disappeared into the darkness of the night, and left us with a feeling of dread. We sat down next to each other and did nothing. We thought about what Moros had told us and what it meant. The night was growing stronger. That could only mean that Nyx was growing in power; reawakening after her long slumber. The mother of the Hesperides, my original family, was awakening.

Dionysus POV

I flashed into the throne room for our meeting. We were going to discuss what we had seen the day before. The message from the mysterious man and his partner. They frustrated me. I was stuck being responsible for all the little brats at camp. I was held responsible every time a monster ate one of them. Whenever a little demigod got himself killed, the parent would always find me and yell at me for not doing my job well enough. Gah, as if my punishment wasn't bad enough.

To top it all off, these last six years or so, demigods that should have died before falling into my responsibilities began appearing at camp, giving me more brats to care for. More brats meant more of the people under my care died which meant I got more flack from the gods about not working hard enough. I had to put up with so much crap from the gods and their children, that it was driving me, the god of madness, insane. I couldn't even partake in my favorite pastime of drinking to help calm me down. I really wanted to strangle this mysterious guy and his partner just to relieve my stress and make the extra demigods stop appearing.

The downside to what I wanted to do though, was that the two appeared to be extraordinarily powerful. Capable of fighting on the same level as us gods, maybe even beat us in a one on one fight. Now, to really top off my troubles, it appeared that the titans and giants were working together to rise again. Right after we just stopped them. I knew that this was going to be a rough meeting.

Poseidon POV

About five minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, the throne room doors opened and the immortal demigods came in with Chiron. I noticed that today, my obnoxious son Daniel had decided to come as well. I hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid because I knew that many of the gods wanted to kill him. Actually, on second thought, hopefully he does something stupid.

Finally, right at noon, there was a bright flash of lightning and a loud boom, and none other than the god of theater himself appeared on his throne.

Zeus looked around the room, glared at Daniel, cleared his throat and spoke, "Thank you all for coming to this emergency meeting. As you are all aware, yesterday we learned of a new threat to us gods and the world in general. We need to discuss what this could mean and what we are going to do about it. First, we should quickly go over the basics of what we discovered yesterday. Athena, if you will?" Zeus looked over at his obnoxious, smartass daughter to speak. I internally groaned, she was way to prideful for her own good.

Athena smiled at Zeus and spoke, "Of course. Yesterday we learned that the mysterious guy who has been saving untrained demigods has a female companion. We learned that the guy has the powers of Poseidon except maybe to an even greater extent than Poseidon himself. The female appears to just as strong except she fights similar to Artemis and once again, may even surpass the mentioned goddess. The two showed us a mining camp in Alaska where Kampê was trying to revive Alcyoneus. Kampê mentioned a 'greater evil' that was behind everything. Since Gaea was just put back to sleep, we can assume it isn't her."

She finally stopped ranting and had a smug look on her face; as if she had just told us something we didn't already know. I rolled my eyes at her and she glared at me. Whatever, it wasn't worth fighting about, so I stayed silent.

Zeus, seeing our silent fight, cleared his throat and spoke, "Thank you Athena. From that information, I believe there are two things we need to know. The first thing is just who the two people are. They are clearly powerful, possibly more powerful than any individual god or goddess, any information we can get on them will be useful. The second thing we need to know is a little bit more important. Who or what is responsible for trying to help the titans and giants rise together? It is clearly a powerful force and we need to figure out what it is. The sooner the better. Does anyone have any idea's about the answers to theses questions?" He finished talking and looked around at everyone, his eyes trying to pull out any information that may be available.

"Um, well, I have an idea," began Nico. Immediately everyone was staring at him. He gulped at the looks he was receiving, but took a deep breath and continued,  
>"This will probably sound absolutely crazy, but Gaea wasn't the only primordial god was she? Is it all possible that another one is slowly gaining power and trying to take over?" He finished speaking and tried to hide himself from the glares he was now receiving.<p>

Zeus in particular was glaring so hard I was afraid Nico might pass out. He finally began speaking, although he didn't stop glaring at the boy, "That is preposterous. There is no way that is possible or could ever happen. All the primordial gods faded away except for Gaea and her husband who watches us all from the skies and he has shown no interest whatsoever in taking over. There is no way that under any conditions another primordial could be rising. " His voice seemed to quaver a little bit at the end of his speech and he finally broke off his glare to look at the floor.

Athena however, had actually been contemplating what Nico said and decided to voice whatever it was that she had decided, "Father, as hard to believe as it may seem, it is possible that a primordial may be rising. If that is the case, we should start preparing for the threat now so that when it finally reaches us, we can be prepared."

Zeus glared at her now before speaking, "Unless you can show me irrefutable proof, I will not allow such crazy talk to persist. So either prove to me that what you presume is true, or do not speak such nonsense again."

Athena paled, which made me happy (it was great seeing her get yelled at instead of me), but responded none the less, "Well father, a primordial would be strong enough to help monsters such as Kampê to reform already and be able to help the titans and giants rise again so soon after their latest defeat. Also, during the message yesterday, Kampê clearly stated that we wouldn't believe the evil that was behind everything, which makes a primordial god a more likely option. Also, what else could it possibly be? I am the goddess of wisdom and I am not aware of any other entity with this much power."

Well, Zeus and Athena proceeded to argue for the next half hour while I tuned them out. Most of the demigods had no clue what they were talking about, and by the end of their argument, I don't think many gods knew either. I spent the duration of their argument wondering who the two unknown figures were. The boy had my powers except he was stronger than me. I didn't like admitting it, but I knew it was true and unlike some of the gods, I was willing to admit that there were beings more powerful than I. I figured he was a son of mine who had done some crazy training and maybe gained a few blessings to increase his power over time and had somehow gained immortality, I just had no clue who. Based on his power, he was probably several hundred years old and I just couldn't think of any of my sons from back then who it might be. I decided to have a talk with Hades about where the spirits of my children were.

Finally, Athena and Zeus stopped arguing. The quiet was nice. The two appeared to have come to some decision or another that neither appeared to like. Finally Zeus spoke, "Since I'm sure that most of you ignored the last bit of the conversation, I will repeat what we decided. Artemis and her hunt will search for any clues that a primordial may be rising while the immortal campers will go around and check on the titan's prisons and the prisons of other powerful monsters who our enemy may wish to release. In one month, we will gather together again to discuss what we have found out. If at that time someone can prove that a primordial is trying to rise, then we will begin planning."

The immortal campers didn't look to pleased with the prospect of checking on titans and other powerful monsters, but they didn't argue. They were smart enough to know that would be a bad idea.

Daniel, however, didn't speak up with a complaint. He spoke up in a way that pissed everyone off. He said, "Why do you guys look so down? These are just titans. I mean, if Percy could beat them, I won't have any trouble with them, so there is nothing to worry about. Calm down and relax, I will take care of everything."

Right as he finished his speech, a bronze dagger appeared imbedded into his left shoulder. He cried out in pain and surprise before pulling the knife out and trying to cover the wound with his hands. He finally decided to try eating ambrosia, which stopped the bleeding, but didn't completely heal him. He was about to take another bite when the knife that he had pulled out of himself and tossed away appeared in his other shoulder. This time, he glared at Annabeth, "What do you think you are doing? We are on the same side here. Why are you trying to hurt me? Are you stupid?" He was screaming the last couple of questions at her.

Annabeth glared at him before answering, "If you could not even block or dodge that knife, you stand no chance against a titan. If you think in the middle of being attacked you will be given a break to heal yourself, you are an idiot. I was merely showing you the error of your ways. At least Percy was smart about HOW he fought his battles. Your arrogance will only blind you and lead you to your defeat." She then pulled her knife out of his shoulder, wiped it off on the sleeve of his shirt, and sheathed it.

Daniel looked like he was about to attack her, so I snapped my fingers and he passed out. I asked Apollo to heal him and we continued to discuss plans for gathering information on the potential threat.

After a while, Zeus decided to change the topic, "Okay, enough with talk of who is behind our current problem. Let us discuss the other matter. Does anyone have any idea's on who the two unknown people are?"

I figured that was my cue to voice my opinion, "Well, the boy appears to have my powers, so I assume he is a son of mine. Based on his strength, he ahs probably been alive for several hundred years at least and gained a multitude of blessings to power himself up and gain immortality. I was actually wondering if my dear brother Hades would be willing to look into the underworld and see if any of my children's souls were missing or perhaps never showed up?"

Zeus seemed to think about this while Hades grumbled about how that would take him weeks to do because I had so many dead children. Zeus finally spoke up, "That is an interesting theory. I do not know how he could have accomplished those feats, but considering the mans power, it does make a certain amount of sense. Hades, look into the underworld and search for any souls of Poseidon's children who aren't there. Athena, go through all the blessings one can receive and track down the roots of the ones that this man have received to see if you can get any information on him that way. Also, check for blessings the woman may have gotten as well, since if the man has blessings, his partner probably does as well. Artemis, the woman fought like one of your hunters, do you have any clues as to who she is?"

Artemis stared at the ceiling for several seconds before responding, "My father, I do not who the woman is. She had the same eyes as my former lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade, but her constellation is still in the sky which means that her soul must be up there as well. Also, my huntresses hate men, so none of them would be travelling around with a man, especially if that was to be their only companion. I wish I could be of more help, but alas I cannot."

"Well," Zeus said, "It seems as though we have gathered all the information we can gather, so let us end this meeting and gather again in exactly one month at noon to discuss what we find out." Zeus then shook the palace with lightning and flashes out.

Percy POV

The morning after Moros visited us, I got a really strong, bad feeling. It was focused in New York. I hadn't gotten any sleep since Moros had appeared and I didn't think Zoë had either, but she had completely shut down and refused to talk once he had left and I had respected her wished and instead just sat next to her in case she needed anything. Now, however, we needed to get moving, so I figured I had to at least try to talk to her.

I gently shook her arm, "Zoë, I know you don't want to talk or do anything really, but we have to go. New York is in danger."

She looked over at me before sitting up, "Percy," she said, "There is something you need to know. Moros said the night was growing stronger and that his mother had sent him. His mother is Nyx, the primordial goddess of the night. She is also my mother." She then began to shake a little and a few tears leaked from her eyes.

I had never seen Zoë like this. Ever. Not even talking about her father did this to her. I wasn't really sure how to react, so I just went with instinct. I wrapped her in a hug and just sat there.

**Well, this has some rather interesting things in it. First of all, regarding Zo****ë****'s mother. **

**That is a very debatable topic and depends on which myths you believe and whatnot. In the books, Zo****ë**** is a Hesperide who betrayed her family to help Hercules. In the myths though, it is a Pleiade that betrays her sisters to help Hercules. If Zo****ë**** is supposed to be that person than her mother is Pleione. If you believe she is a Hesperide, then her mother is Nyx. In either case her father could be Atlas. My guess is that Rick Riordan didn't want to throw too much mythology in to confuse the readers and tried to simplify things down a little bit by combing the Hesperides and Pleiades together. I have no evidence to back that theory up, but it does make a certain amount of sense. It only becomes a problem when you try to write your own original story based off of the books that he wrote. **

**Anyways, for this story, I'm going to treat Zo****ë**** as a Hesperide with Atlas for a father and Nyx as a mother.**

**Also, a lot of the Greek myths contradict each other and tell slightly different stories, which just jumble everything up even more. If my mythology seems to be off from what you think or expect, please keep in mind that I am probably just getting my information from different sources. Hopefully it doesn't become a problem, however if you believe that my mythology is completely and utterly wrong, just let me know and I will look it up and possibly change things.**

**I recommend though, that before you criticize me too much, that you do a little research into the myths yourself. They are really quite interesting.**

**Now that that little talk is over, sorry for not updating in a little bit. I started getting idea's for the future, but froze a little on the present, so I took a little bit of a break to gather my thoughts and do some research before continuing the story. Hopefully this story continues to please you guys and if not, let me know what I need to do to improve it. Give me POV's that you want to see and idea's of your own.**

**I will wait at least a day, maybe more, so that anyone who has anything to say to me regarding this chapter says it, because after this chapter, more things will be set in stone. I always welcome other opinions, so please share yours with me.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Before I start, I would like to remind everyone that as much as I like Percabeth, this is NOT one of those stories. Sucks for Annabeth, but she will probably get over it. **

**This should be a more exciting chapter. Some rather exciting things take place that hopefully you will enjoy. **

Zoë POV

Percy really is a great guy. After comforting me in Alaska, he agreed to camp out in Central Park in New York because he knows I enjoy being outside more than being stuck in a hotel. He even decided to wait until the next day to start searching for the cause of the bad feeling he was getting. I could tell her was doing everything he could to help me feel better, I just didn't really want to talk about it. My mother, the primordial goddess of the night was trying to destroy everything I cared for and she was powerful enough to do it if she did fully awaken.

It was very early in the morning; I had awoken early after getting very little sleep. The sun would rise soon. I decided to walk through the park to try and clear my mind. I walked through the trees and thought about the future. My mother was trying to rise and take over the world. If she did, she would crush humanity with eternal night and bring forth an age of fear and desperation, ruled by her and her favorite children. She would probably give me power if I sided with her, but I would never join her. I didn't want the world to be ruled by the night and the terrible creatures that were born of it. I would fight to the last to prevent Nyx from taking over. As I was thinking, I walked into a little clearing with a massive maple tree in it.

I was captivated by the tree. It was the largest maple tree I had ever seen. Looking at it, I remembered what Chaos had shown me of Percy's life, how he had fought Hyperion and the satyr's had imprisoned him within a maple tree in Central Park. It dawned on me that this was that maple tree. This wonderful maple tree was the resting place of Hyperion, one of the strongest titans. I wondered if Percy's sense of dread in New York were because something was going to happen to this tree.

The sun had yet to rise, so I walked up to the tree to get a better look at it. It didn't appear any different from other maple trees except for its size, but there was definitely a sense of power coming from it. It felt as if Hyperion was fighting against his prison, trying to get free. I was about to run back and wake Percy and warn him of this problem when the sun peaked up over the horizon. Just as it did, the tree exploded.

Percy POV

I woke up to an explosion. I could instantly feel an enormous power from not very far away. I looked over to see if the explosion had woken Zoë up, but she wasn't there. I immediately probed with my senses and located her right next to where the explosion had occurred. I shot up and sprinted through the trees towards where Zoë was and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The trees opened into a clearing that I recognized as where Hyperion had been trapped, except where his tree should have been, there was a massive crater. I realized that the explosion had been Hyperion being freed from his prison. I looked around for Zoë and saw her lying on the ground in a heap. It appeared as if she had been close to the tree when it had exploded and been thrown back by the force of it. She was injured and wasn't moving. The worst part was that Hyperion was standing over her with his sword raised.

Before he could even begin to swing his sword, I had both of my swords out and teleported right in front of him. I kicked him in the chest hard enough to make him stagger back several steps. He was no longer hovering over Zoë, so I began my assault. Before he could recover from my kick, he had to block my sword strikes. He was powerful and quick, but under my assault, he was losing ground. I backed him to a tree and managed to disarm him. I pushed him down into an uncomfortable position that was a mixture of sitting and kneeling.

He was clearly exhausted and with one of my swords at his neck, he wasn't eager to move. I glared at him and spoke, "How did you get free of your prison? That tree should have been able to hold you for several hundred years at least."

He looked up at me and smirked, "You fools locked me in a tree. Trees grow stronger with light. I just had to syphon the light energy to myself and was able to gain back my power and free myself. Of course, I had a little help from the night. She woke me up and told me how to free myself. You must be one of the people that she warned me about. Based on your reaction, that girl over there that is about to die is the other one. Even if you send me to Tartarus, I will rise again while the girl shall not."

He probably would have said more, except I stabbed him through the neck with one sword while stabbing him in the chest with my other. He dissolved into golden dust and I ran over to Zoë.

I carefully rolled her onto her back and looked at her. She was still alive and breathing which was good, but she was covered in scrapes and grime from the explosion and had several pieces of tree imbedded in her arms and stomach. The wounds were too much for me to do anything for and I felt useless. I tried to feed her some ambrosia, but it didn't seem to do much. It healed some of the minor wounds, but the branch that was embedded in her stomach was too much for the little bit of ambrosia to fix up. I wasn't sure what to do. My best friend in the world was lying in front of me dying and I couldn't do anything. I felt useless.

I sat there crying. I couldn't lose Zoë. She meant too much to me. If she died, I would have nothing. I would be alone in the world again and I couldn't stand that. I felt like a hopeless failure; how was I supposed to be a Guardian of the Earth if I couldn't even save my closest friend? If Zoë died, even if I lived, I knew a part of me would die with her and I would never be the same again. I sat there crying and realized that I was in love with her. I didn't care about the world with Zoë's life in the balance. I needed to save her no matter what so that I could be with her. I needed to tell her my feelings and find out if she loved me as well. I needed her to live. But instead, she was lying in front of me, slowly dying as the sun rose behind me.

The sun. That sent a jolt through me. Of course. Apollo. If I could get him down here, he could save her. He was the god of healing after all, right? I concentrated on myself and lowered the barriers that prevented Apollo from being able to detect me. I then sent a wave of power in his direction and hoped he would get the message. He did. About a minute later, his Maserati landed in the clearing right next to me.

Apollo POV

So I had just pulled my sun chariot out of the garage when I heard an explosion down below. I didn't think much of it, figured Ares was doing something stupid again and if I looked into it he would try to kill me, so I just kept flying along enjoying the view. I was thinking about my lover from the night that had been when I felt something strange.

It was a powerful source of energy. Stronger than any god I had met. Stronger than a titan. It also seemed to be sending a wave of energy at me, as if it wanted my attention. Now normally, I would be worried and call for help, but I got a funny idea. What if this was one of the two mysterious figures we were wondering about? If one was calling for me and I brought backup, the dude might just leave. So I decided to head down and check it out.

The energy was coming from Central Park, so I flew down and landed in a clearing where it looked like a bomb had gone off. As soon as I got out of my chariot, the hooded mystery man we had been wondering about appeared before me. His green eyes looked panicked and shocked. Whatever was going on, I knew it was bad if it had him freaking out. He tried to talk, but he just spewed random gibberish that made no sense.

"Whoa there dude. Calm down and tell me why you called me down here. I was under the impression you were avoiding us gods. Just calm down and tell me the problem." I tried to calm him down, and I think it worked a little bit, at least he stopped spewing nonsense.

He took a deep breath and started talking coherently, "Hyperion broke free from his prison, and when he escaped, the explosion seriously wounded my partner. She isn't doing to well and I thought you could save her. Please, I'm begging you Lord Apollo, save her and I will do anything." He was practically screaming by the end of that and I could tell he was serious.

I looked at him and told him, "I suppose I can save her, but I want to know who you are and what the two of you have been doing and-"

He cut me off, "Fine. Fine. I will tell you. I swear on the Styx, but you have to save her first." He grabbed me and dragged me over to the form of a girl, lying on the ground with a dirt covered face, tree bark embedded in her arms, and a branch sticking through her stomach. It was quite the situation indeed. No wonder he was so panicked.

I gently pulled the stick out of her stomach and the bark out of her arms while the man watched nervously from the side. Once I had done that, I placed my hands on her shoulders and sent a beam of golden light into her body to heal her wounds. After a minute or so, I removed my hands and stood up.

He looked at me and asked, "Well? How is she? Will she be alright?" He was pretty flustered and I could tell he was panicking.

"Chill out man. She's going to be fine. She just needs to rest now. Now you promised me answers, so get talking. Not all the gods trust you two, so depending on what you tell me, I might be able to change that."

Before he answered my questions, he bent down and cleaned off the girls face. I gasped at what I saw. I never forget a pretty face, especially not one that had spent 2000 years with my baby sister. "No way," I said. "That is not possible. Zoë is dead, her constellation is in the sky which means that her soul is up there still. How is this possible?" I couldn't believe it. There was no way that was Zoë, and if it was, why was she travelling around with a guy? She hated guys.

After he finished cleaning her face off, he stood up and walked over to me. "You wanted to know who we were? I would rather it remain secret from the gods, but since I promised to tell you and you did save her life, I will tell you. It us up to you on whether or not you share this with the other gods." After telling me that, he pulled his hood down.

Once again I was shocked. I couldn't seem to think up any words to express my surprise. Poseidon had told us that the guy would have to be really old in order to be so powerful, yet instead, the guys is about 18 years old. After staring at him for several seconds with my jaw dropped like an idiot, I managed to speak, "Wait, YOU are the super powerful mystery man who defeated Kampê and destroyed the cave where Alcyoneus was being revived? Are you really Percy Jackson?"

He looked at me and nodded his head. "I am indeed Percy Jackson. That is part of the reason I didn't want you gods to find out who I was. I have been trying to not be found and avoid you guys. Unfortunately, this little incident here made it necessary for me to reveal myself to you. As for Zoë, she did indeed die. Lady Artemis then sent her essence to the stars and she became a constellation. When she was brought back to life though, she asked that her constellation remain so as not to worry anyone. She did not want people to know she was alive again. The two of us are the Guardians of Earth. We were given this role by a higher power that wishes to see Earth remain strong and peaceful."

I was still amazed. Percy Jackson was more powerful than any god and Zoë Nightshade was alive again and just as strong as Percy. "Wait, Percy, how did you and Zoë get so strong and how did she get brought back to life?" I was really curious and that was the root of the question. Who was responsible for this? I needed to know.

Percy looked at me and smiled, "That is not something you need to know. I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me. Anyways, right now there is a more important problem than how I got so powerful. I'm sure you would like to know what happened here and how Hyperion got freed from his prison so soon after it was made."

I looked at him and got a strange feeling, "You didn't free him, did you? Because if you did, I would have to kill you."

He looked horrified at the idea of setting the titan free; "I mostly certainly did not set him free. Remember the greater evil that Kampê mentioned? That is what set Hyperion free."

Okay, I thought, that is real specific. "So Percy, do you happen to have any idea of what that greater evil is? Us gods don't really know. Some believe it is a primordial, but Zeus refuses to believe that is possible. If you have any insight to offer, it would be appreciated. I might even recite a haiku for you."

He shuddered for some unexplainable reason before answering, "Yes we have an idea as to what the greater evil is. After we defeated Kampê and destroyed the body of Alcyoneus, Moros appeared before us with a message from his mother, Nyx, warning us to stay out of her way while she tries to take over the world. Hyperion said that Nyx woke him up in his prison and told him how to escape it. That is all we have found out about the greater threat, but if it truly is Nyx, then we are in trouble."

When he said that Nyx was behind this, I nearly peed myself. She is as ancient and powerful as Gaea. When he finished talking, I started cursing. On the plus side, I knew what the threat was. On the down side, Nyx was going to be nearly impossible to defeat. Especially for me. She is most likely to attack at night, when I am most useless in a fight, which would only cause trouble.

After a little time had passed, Percy spoke again, "Lord Apollo, I have told you all I can tell you. I would appreciate it if you would keep our identities a secret, but if you can't, I understand. I promise you that we are on your side of this battle and we will not stand in your way. For the most part, we will do our own thing, but if things get really bad, we may join up with you in battle. Once again, thank you for saving Zoë. I wouldn't be able to live if she had died. I promise that I will make this up to you some day."

I looked over at Zoë again. She was still asleep, but she was starting to stir. I figured she would wake up any moment. I had some questions I wanted to ask her as well, but before she could wake up, Percy put his hand on her shoulder and the two vanished in a flash of light. I tried to feel for the power that I had initially felt from Percy, but he had managed to block it off again so I wouldn't be able to find them.

Oh well, I thought, I better go tell father what I learned today. I decided to try and keep their identities secret to prevent panic and confusion on Olympus, but I had to tell them about Nyx.

I called one of my son's, Miletus, to drive the chariot today, and flashed myself back up to Olympus. I wanted a little more time to think about what I would tell my father, so I flashed to the entrance to Olympus and walked the streets towards the throne room. Along the way, I bumped into my baby sister.

"Good morning Arty, how are you today?" I asked her.

She glared at me and then smacked my arm, "Do not call me Arty," she hissed, "What do you want anyways?"

"Ah, so glad you asked. You see, I learned something interesting today and was on my way to report it to father. I was thinking that you might want to be there to hear what I found out, so come on." I grinned at my baby sister and walked towards the throne room.

She looked at me with an annoyed expression on her face but followed me. "Fine, but this better be good. If you are just wasting my time I'm going to kill you."

Together, we walked into the throne room and stood before our father.

Zeus POV

With all the drama that had been going on the past several days, I was wondering what else could possibly go wrong. As if in answer to my question, the throne room doors opened and Apollo and Artemis walked in. Apollo looked nervous and a little apprehensive while Artemis just appeared to be annoyed. I figured Apollo had done something stupid to Artemis or her hunters and now she was going to complain to me.

I sighed, "What did Apollo do this time?"

Artemis looked at me and laughed. "For once, I'm not here to complain about him. He just told me he needed to tell you something and that I might want to be here to hear it as well."

I raised my eyebrows and looked at Apollo, "What do you have to tell me that is so important you decided to tell me now instead of driving your chariot?" I asked him.

He shuffled his feet and looked down before responding, "Nyx is rising."

I paled when he said that. My eyes bugged out and I wasn't sure how to talk. After several moments had passed, I regained my composure, "Apollo, if that is what you consider a funny joke, then we are going to have some problems. If that is what you came to say, then leave or prove to me that your claim is true. I already told you I don't want to hear any of this talk about primordials." I was fuming at the thought that Apollo was just joking around and was wasting our time. There was no way Nyx could rise. None.

Apollo appeared to be quite scared by my little rant, but steeled his nerves and continued. "Father, Maybe it would help if I told you what happened today. This morning was a normal morning for me, I got up and went to go drive the sun. As soon as I pulled out and the sun began to rise, I heard an explosion and assumed it was Ares being stupid. A few minutes later, I felt a powerful aura directed at me and went to check it out. I landed in Central Park where Hyperion used to be imprisoned-"

"What do you mean 'used to,' as far as I know he is still stuck in his maple tree."

"Well father, if you wouldn't interrupt me I would explain that to you," Apollo tried and failed to glare at me. "Anyways, as I was saying, I landed where his tree used to be. In its place was a giant crater. As soon as I stepped out of my chariot, the mysterious hooded figure we have been wondering about appeared in front of me."

"Wait, you MET this guy? Wha-"

This time it was Artemis who interrupted me. "Father, let Apollo tell his story before you ask questions that way he can tell us what happened and he can answer some of your questions before you ask them."

I sighed and motioned for Apollo to continue. "Thanks baby sis." Artemis glared at him. "As I was saying, he appeared before me and tried to talk. All that came out was gibberish. After a little bit of talking to him, he calmed down and told me that Hyperion had been freed and that when his prison exploded, it severely injured his companion, so he had allowed me to sense his aura and come to him in hoped that I could heal his companion. He seemed to be pretty freaked out.

"I told him I would help him if he promised to answer some of my questions. He promised, so I went over to the girl and healed her. As he promised, he answered my questions."

"Wait, Apollo, what did you ask him? You should tell us that, it is important," I know I shouldn't interrupt, but I needed to know as much as I could at this point.

Apollo looked at me and sighed, "Fine. I found out who they are. It isn't really important so we will call them Terry and Lisa." I was about to interrupt and demand he tell me who they really were, but he continued before I could. "Terry told me that after defeating Kampê, Moros had appeared to them in the middle of the night and warned them not to interfere with Nyx's plans. He also said that Hyperion told him that Nyx had woken him up and told him to get free. Terry then assured me that they were on our side and disappeared with Lisa before I could ask any more questions. And that is what happened to me this morning."

I was speechless and frustrated. I had a feeling that Apollo wouldn't tell me the people's names no matter what I did which made me mad. However if Apollo believed that they would be on our side, I figured they probably wouldn't be a threat. Also, if these two had been told by Moros, a son of Nyx, that she was rising, then there was a chance that she might indeed be rising. That was not a good sign.

After thinking about what Apollo had said for a little bit I called Hermes in.

Hermes appeared before me and bowed, "What do you need, father?"

"Hermes, some important information has appeared regarding the threats we have been discussing. I want you to let the other gods know that we will be having a meeting tomorrow at noon to discuss what we have learned. No demigods."

Hermes bowed and flashed out. "Apollo, Artemis, you two are dismissed for now. Make sure you are here tomorrow for the meeting. Please do not discuss what happened today outside of this room. Wait until the meeting to let the others know."

Artemis POV

As I was about to flash out and return to my hunters, Apollo turned to me, "Hey sis, there is something else I need to tell you in private. Meet me in front of my temple." He then flashed out. Curious as to what he had to say, I followed him.

I appeared in front of his temple and Apollo tuned to look at me. "You know how I told Zeus that the identities of the two didn't matter?" he asked me.

I nodded, "Yeah. Why? Are you going to tell me who they are?"

He seemed to think for a little bit, "Well, I didn't plan on telling anyone because it could just cause problems, but you have a right to know who the woman is. It was quite the surprise when I saw her face."

I was getting really curios now, "Who was she?"

He got a serious expression on for one of the first times ever and said, "Brace yourself for this." He paused for a few seconds and then continued, "The woman is Zoë Nightshade."

I paled. That was impossible, she died and her spirit resides in the stars, I thought. How could she be alive again? "Wha-what? That's impossible," I murmured, "Her constellation is still in the sky, how can she be alive on Earth?"

Apollo looked at me with a thoughtful expression, "I don't really know. I asked the man how it was possible and he told me that the being who revived Zoë left the constellation in the stars so as not to worry us. I asked who it was that revived her, but he told me I wouldn't believe him and didn't need to know. Regardless, I healed her so she is very much alive now."

I stared at him, trying to comprehend this fact. My Lieutenant of 2000 years was alive. And she was travelling around with a boy. That didn't make any sense, "Hey, Apollo. Zoë hates men, so why was she travelling around with a boy?" There had only ever been one boy who Zoë had respected and that was Percy. Since Poseidon said this guy was too strong to be Percy, I wasn't sure who he was and what had convinced Zoë to trust him.

My brother looked to be contemplating telling me who the boy was. He finally seemed to come to a decision, "I will tell you who he is if you swear on the Styx not to tell anyone."

I grudgingly swore on the Styx. Thunder rumbled. Apollo grinned.

"The man is none other than Perseus Jackson."

I stumbled back in shock. That couldn't be, could it? Poseidon had said that Percy wouldn't be able to get that strong so quickly. But then, I thought, if some being could revive Zoë and make her more powerful, couldn't the same being have increased Percy's strength as well? That made sense to me. I gasped as a thought came to me.

"Nico. He knew that the guy was Percy all along. That's why he tried to distract us from Percy by telling us about the mystery man. He was telling us about Percy without us even knowing. I bet he had quite a few laughs about that one…" I grumbled.

"I suppose that makes sense. Well baby sis, I'm off. I got things to do. So see you later. But first, a haiku."

I teleported myself to the hunters camp before he could recite one of his terrible haiku's.

**And…..done.**

**That was fun. Another chapter finished. This one was 4600 words without the author's notes. The next chapter will be having more fun in it. A little hypothesizing about Nyx's plans and other such stuff. It may also have a little romance in it for those who like that. If it does end up having romance, I will try not to fail at writing it. I'm not very good with that stuff, but I will give it my best shot.**

**Also, when I started writing this story, I had no clue that Nyx was Zo****ë****'s mother. When I found that out, I could have left it out, but I thought it would throw an interesting wrinkle into my story. Hopefully it works out for the best.**

**Anyways, like normal, if there are any suggestions you have for me, questions, comments, things I could improve or do differently, or other POV's that you want, let me know in a review or PM.**

**I hope you guys are all having good lives and that the world is treating you well. **

**Until next time, have fun.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Here we go with Chapter 11**

**This story is making much faster progress than I had originally envisioned. Hopefully I can keep up at this pace, but if not, I will update at least once a week, probably more.**

**The main reason I don't promise daily updates isn't because of time, it's just that some days, I don't feel like writing. Trying to force myself to write would just lead to a lower quality story so don't be surprised if I take a day or three off sometimes. I only do it to assure the highest quality writing I can put out.**

**Anyways, here goes.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Zoë POV

I had terrible nightmares. Phobetor, a son of Nyx and the personification of nightmares, visited my dreams and made me see terrible things.

I saw Percy. He had metal poles entering the soles of his feet and exciting through his shoulders. The poles were stuck in the ground and Percy was screaming in pain. I tried to help him, but I couldn't move. I was forced to watch as a fire was started below him and he slowly burned to death, screaming in agony the whole time, staring into my eyes.

The dream changed and showed me Artemis. She was slowly running through the forest. She had ball weights attached to her ankles, slowing her down. Eventually, she tired and collapsed on the ground and I could see what was chasing her. Several of the vilest men that I had helped her hunt down while I worked with her caught up with her. They did terrible things to her that will probably never leave me. Once again, I could only watch as this happened, while Artemis stared into my eyes.

Finally, the scene faded away and in front of me was Phobetor. He told me that I could save the people I cared about from these cruel fates. All I had to do was join with my mother instead of fighting against her. She would spare my friends and give me power. I refused to join my mother and he sent me back to my nightmares. Finally, after I don't know how long, I awoke.

I tried to sit up, but the pain in my stomach as well as someone's strong arms, kept me lying down. I opened my eyes and tried to take in my surroundings. I was lying on soft ground in a forest. It appeared to be daytime; I wasn't sure what time though. Before I could take in more about my surroundings, I saw Percy. It was such a relief to see he him alive and well after my nightmares, that I ignored his protests, sat up and hugged him.

I didn't want to admit it, but Phobetor had really gotten to me. The things he had shown me were terrible. I was so relieved that it really had just been a terrible dream that a few tears of joy slipped out. I could tell Percy was worried, but I didn't care. I held him tight and promised to never let him suffer the way I had been shown. The fact was, the threat of hurting Percy just made me want to destroy Nyx and prevent her rise even more.

After a minute or two had passed, I was able to speak again. "Percy, I'm glad you're okay."

He pulled away from me and looked at me funny, "You're glad I'M okay? I woke up and found you almost dead at the feet of Hyperion and YOU'RE glad that I'M okay? You scared me Zoë. I was worried sick about you and I must say, I'm glad that YOU are okay. It was a close call also, if Apollo hadn't been around, you would probably have died."

I was a little surprised by his outburst. I tried to think back on what had happened and I vaguely remembered the sun rising and a tree exploding. Then I remembered that it was Hyperion's tree. Oh gods. No wonder Percy was so worried about me. Then I thought about what he had said. "Wait. What happened to Hyperion? And what do you meant when you say it was lucky Apollo was around? What happened?"

Percy grinned at me, "Well, it's good to see you're feeling better now. As for what happened, I woke up to an explosion, went to check it out, and saw you injured with Hyperion about to kill you. That made me mad, so I kicked Hyperion's sorry butt, saw how badly injured you were, and freaked out because I thought you were going to die. Then I realized that the sun had just risen so Apollo would be around. I allowed him to feel my presence and called him down. He agreed to heal you if I answered some of his questions, so now he knows who we are, what our job is, and that Nyx is rising. He healed you and looked like he was going to bombard you with questions as soon as you awoke, so I teleported us away from him before he could get a chance."

By watching him as he told me what had happened, I could tell he had been really scared for me and that made me feel bad. I couldn't believe I had gotten so distracted I didn't notice Hyperion's tree was about to explode. My worrying about Nyx had nearly gotten me killed and broken Percy all over again. That made me feel terrible.

Percy seemed to notice I was feeling guilty, because he gave me another hug and whispered soothing words to calm me down. I mostly tuned out his talking because I was completely distracted by his hug. I realized that I was really falling on love with him. The thought scared me, but at the same time it comforted me. I knew that Percy would never hurt me the way Hercules had. Percy knew what betrayal feels like and I know he would never inflict such pain upon another, what me was the fact that I had no clue how he really felt about me. I didn't want to push him and risk losing him. He was probably more wary about love than I was.

I looked into his eyes and was mesmerized. I felt like I could stare into them forever. Eventually, I remembered that we had been having a conversation about how much I had worried him. "I'm sorry Percy. I didn't mean to worry you." I looked down, but he still held me.

"No, no. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you feel bad and ranted about how worried I was. When we first got here, you woke up for a few seconds before passing out again. This time though, it seemed you were having nightmares. You kept crying out, but I couldn't understand what you were saying. I was afraid you weren't going to wake up though, and I couldn't stand that thought."

When he finished talking, he looked nervous for some reason. He had appeared worried most of the time, but as soon as he finished, he was suddenly nervous. "What is it Percy? What aren't you telling me? I can tell you are holding something back." When I said that, he blushed.

He tried to look away and tell me it was nothing, but when he blushed, I had gotten excited and wondered if maybe, just maybe, he liked me as much as I liked him. So I pushed him.

He was still blushing and trying to look away, but he did respond, "It's just that, there is uh, something I need to tell you and I was um, worried I might not ever get the chance to tell you…" He trailed off and I couldn't hear him anymore.

I grabbed his head and made him look at me, "Percy, I can't understand you when you stutter and trail off. Look at me when you are talking to me, and tell me what you need to say." I was getting a little impatient and demanding, but I needed to know what he was trying to say.

He blushed even more at that and tried to talk, but didn't have much success. He stuttered and mumbled and nothing came out. I groaned in frustration, "Our with it already!" I demanded.

He looked at me and sighed. He seemed to be gathering his courage to speak and trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say. Finally, he took a deep breath, looked me right in the eye and said, "Zoë, I think I love you."

Percy POV

_Crap, _I thought. I had just told Zoë that I loved her. I mean, yeah, she practically forced me to say it, but I had no clue how she would react. She had spent 2000 years hating all men because of Hercules, and although she liked me, I was scared I had overstepped our friendship with my confession. Now, she was just sitting there staring at me with wide eyes. I figured she was going to blow up and start yelling at me about how men were terrible creatures and such, but instead she just sat there stunned.

After about a minute though, a smile spread across her gorgeous face. "Really?" She asked me. I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Suddenly, she tackled me with a hug, catching me completely off guard. I fell onto my back with her lying on top of me.

I blushed at our position and smiled sheepishly at her as she stared at me. She then leaned down and gave me a kiss.

Stars exploded in my mind and I stopped being able to think. I just lay there with my arms around her and her face resting on mine.

She lifted her head up a little and said, "I love you too, Percy. I never thought I would be able to love again, and to be honest it still scares me, but after you helped me come back to life, I realized that I really do love you."

I grinned at her and hugged her tighter. I kissed her and we lay there on the ground for who knows how long, just enjoying being with each other. After a while, I realized that she had fallen asleep again.

Thalia POV

It was early morning. We were camped out in the woods of northern part of New York. While we were eating breakfast, lady Artemis had been up on Olympus, trying to se if anybody had any information that might be useful to us in our search for signs of a primordial rising.

Just as we were finishing breakfast, Lady Artemis flashed in. She looked like she had learned something of use for our search, but the panicked and confused look worried me a little. After several seconds, she looked at us all and spoke, "No hunting today. Just stick around and train. Tomorrow I will be gone to Olympus for another meeting. Thalia, you will be in charge of then hunters while I am gone. No demigods are allowed at this meeting." She then walked slowly away towards the forest.

The other hunters appeared to be a little confused about Artemis's behavior, so I cleared my throat to get their attention and spoke, "You heard our mistress. Clean up breakfast and go train. As for me, I will go talk to Artemis and see what I can learn." I then walked out and headed towards where I had last seen Artemis walking.

Several minutes into my walk, I came into a clearing. I looked around and saw Artemis sitting on a log near the boundary of the clearing. I walked over to her and sat down.

Without looking at me, she spoke, "Thalia, I believe I told you all to train, so why are you here?"

I sighed, "My lady, I can tell that something is wrong. What did you learn on Olympus and what is tomorrow's meeting about? As a huntress and your lieutenant, it is my duty to serve you and help you, I can't do either of those properly if you are not willing to tell me what troubles you."  
>She looked around the clearing. Making sure there were no other listeners before turning to me, "Fine. I will tell you what happened, but first you must swear not to tell anyone else."<p>

I swore on the Styx not to tell anyone. Artemis then told me what Apollo had told my father. The story surprised me. I guess after watching the two people fight off Kampê and an army of monsters, I thought they were indestructible. To hear that one of them almost died was rather shocking.

It also made me wonder, "Lady Artemis, did Apollo give you any hints as to who the people are? You said that he knows who they are but wouldn't tell. Did he happen to drop any hints as to their identities? And are they really trustworthy? Just because they claim that Nyx is rising, that doesn't mean it's true, does it?"

After asking my questions, she looked a little bit guilty for some reason. After several minutes had passed, she answered me, "The two are trustworthy. If they claim that Nyx is rising, I believe them. As for who they are, Apollo pulled me aside after the short meeting and informed of their identities. Once he told me who they were, I understood why they wanted to have it remain a secret."

Great. Artemis knew who they were, but wasn't telling me. I really wanted to know, but I didn't want to anger her. I was curious though. She said that she trusted them both, not just the woman. I wasn't aware of any boys who she would trust though. I finally decided to ask her, if she got mad at me, hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. "My lady, by any chance, could you tell me who the two are? I would rather like to know, especially since you seem to trust the man."

When I mentioned her trust in the man, she got a panicked look on her face, as if I had trapped her or something. After a little bit she sighed, "I cannot tell you the identity of the man because Apollo made me swear on the Styx not to tell anyone. As for who the woman is, I do not know if I should tell you, it might just cause problems. However, I can tell from your face that you won't let me go unless I tell you, so if you really want to know, then I will inform you of who she is."

I grinned when she said that she would tell me who the woman is, although the idea that it might just cause problems was a little worrisome. "Please, My Lady, tell me. I would like to know."

She sighed and responded, "Zoë Nightshade."

I gasped and nearly fell off the log in shock. "Wha- bu- but, that's impossible!" I cried out, "She died. I was there when it happened, and as you said, as long as her constellation is in the sky, so is her spirit. How can the woman be Zoë?"

Artemis looked down and said, "I do not know how she came back to life, but Apollo said that in order to prevent people from worrying, she asked that her constellation remain in the sky after she was revived. And I do know that she died. I was also there when it happened. Now she is back though, and travelling the world with a man. I have a feeling that she may be in love with him. Before you ask, remember that I cannot tell you who he is. If you really want to know, ask my obnoxious brother."

I couldn't believe this. Zoë was alive again, and on top of that, she was with a man whom Artemis believes she loves. None of this was making sense. No wonder Artemis appeared to be out of it. This all left me more curious about whom the man was, though. I needed to find out. Someway, somehow, I would figure out who he was.

Zak POV (one of the demigods that Percy saved)

I couldn't believe it. I always knew that the man who had saved me was strong, but when the immortal counselors told us what he had done to Kampê and her army, I was amazed. Ever since I had gotten to camp and learned that I was a son of Enyo, a minor war goddess, I had trained to be as strong as the guy that had saved me. He was my hero. Everyone else looked up to the Percy Jackson dude, who I guess was cool enough and all, but the guy who saved me and brought me to camp, I just knew he was even cooler than Percy.

Anyways, I had gotten so strong since I came to camp that when they were talking about checking up on titan prisons and such, I was one of the campers who got to go help check out some of them. The immortal campers separated into three groups. My group was going to check out the eastern half of the country. Our first stop was to go check out the maple tree Hyperion was trapped in. Apparently Percy had worn him down and weakened him so much that the satyr's had been able to imprison him. That was cool, but the guy who had saved me could probably have beaten him without the help of the satyr's.

Well, you can imagine our surprise when we finally got to the park only to find a massive crater where the tree was supposed to be. This must have been a recent event because it was right below Olympus and they would have told us if they had known that Hyperion had been freed. We were about to send a message up to the gods when one of the gods flashed down in front of us.

I looked and it was Apollo. We all bowed and our groups leader, Annabeth, started telling Apollo what we had found here. Before she could get too far into her story though, he raised his hand to silence her.

"Yeah, yeah, Hyperion was freed. We know. He was also defeated so don't worry. He is now in Tartarus. You see,

_The cloaked man beat him_

_To save his pretty girlfriend_

_And now he is gone_

See, I even wrote a haiku about it." We all clapped so we wouldn't offend the god, but his haiku sucked.

Annabeth spoke up, "When you say the cloaked man beat him, do you mean the mystery man we have been wondering about?"

Apollo raised an eyebrow, "Yes I do mean him. The tree exploded injuring his girlfriend, so he battled Hyperion and sent him to Tartarus. He then sent me a message and I healed his girlfriend in exchange for information."

That was great. I always knew the guy was strong, and now he had defeated a titan that not even Percy had beaten alone. This guy was AWESOME. I was practically jumping with excitement. I really wanted to meet him again so I could thank him and ask him to give me some tips on fighting and getting stronger.

After that, Apollo left without giving us any more information. That annoyed Annabeth, but she couldn't do anything against the gods, so we moved on to our next destination.

**Finished. That took me a while to type. I took a day off from writing this story and had a bit of trouble writing this. Hopefully it was good.**

**I will try to post at least one more chapter this week, but if not I will have one posted by Sunday at the latest. **

**Somebody asked me about writing more stories. I do not currently have any other stories planned. If I get inspiration for another story, I will write one, but I will also probably limit myself to one story at a time. Once I finish this story, I will see how I feel about writing another. **

**If you have suggestions for another story, send me a message.**

**If you want to let me know how I did with this chapter, give me suggestions for future chapters, or tell me POV's you want in this story, leave a review or PM me.**

**Thank you all for reading.**


	12. Chapter 12

**It might have taken some time, but this is chapter 12.**

**I must say that I appreciate the reviews and feedback. It helps keep me motivated.**

**For some reason, I have seen people announcing what song they are listening to as they write, or something like that. Anyways, I don't want to miss out on the fun, so here goes.**

**Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3**

**And**

**Mahler's ninth symphony**

**Anyways, here goes**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books**

Percy POV

After Zoë and I had confessed our feelings for each other, we spent several days just relaxing. It had been an eventful couple of weeks and we were both pretty stressed. I wasn't getting any sense of another major problem in the near future, so we spent our time in each other's presence and continued doing the easier tasks of fighting off weaker monsters and rescuing demigods.

Whenever we rescued a demigod, I would try my hardest not to get attached. I knew I would probably never see the demigod again and I wouldn't be able to help once they had begun their real training. Once the demigods made it to camp, they were the god's responsibility to care for.

We knew that with Nyx rising, we had to be careful at night. We saved our important discussions for the day to make sure Nyx couldn't listen in. At first, we had been panicked trying to figure out how to deal with the threat, but eventually we came to the conclusion that we would just continue training and pray for Chaos to guide us along the right path.

I wasn't quite sure what the right term was for my relationship with Zoë. She was too important to me to be considered just a girlfriend and we weren't exactly going out with each other, we were spending almost every moment together. Regardless, I loved it all. Whenever I would get worried about Nyx, or just the future in general, she would comfort me, and whenever she was worried, I would comfort her. It was nice. Every now and then one of us would have a nightmare, brought to us by Phobetor no doubt, and it was nice being able to find comfort in the arms of the other.

The strangest thing about our relationship was the dreams. Ever since we had admitted our love for each other, we had occasionally dreamt together. It was weird having a joint dream. Sometimes we would watch my past or Zoë's together, and it wouldn't be as painful anymore. Sometimes, one of us would be having a nightmare and the other would just pop into the nightmare and end it. Sometimes we would watch the world, the way I had when I had first met Chaos, looking down on the planet from outer space. It was strange sharing a dream with another, but at the same time, it wax comforting, knowing I wasn't alone no mater what.

Several weeks after the incident with Hyperion, I awoke in the early morning, before the sun had risen, with a sense of dread. I knew it had to be dealt with immediately. I shook Zoë awake, which she didn't look to pleased about, and told her that we needed to do something.

She looked up at me with weary eyes, "Percy, it's not even 3:00 in the morning yet, what is going on? You aren't making much sense."

I sighed. Waking up this early was not fun. "Zoë, I just woke up with a sense of dread that needs to be dealt with now. I feel like it is of vital importance. Hurry up and get up, the problem is close by."

She sighed and got up, "This better be important Percy, I was having a comfortable dreamless sleep for once."

We slowly crept through the forest surrounding us until we heard voices.

"What are you doing to me? Why are you attacking me? I thought we were friends!" One voice cried out. It sounded female and when I looked for the source of the voice, it appeared to be a tree nymph.

Attacking the poor nymph was what appeared to be a naiad. But that didn't make sense, normally the dryads and naiads got along with each other, and they never resorted to violence. I couldn't see much in the darkness, but I could see the crazy expression on the naiads face. I could also feel a different presence nearby.

As the naiad began attacking the dryad, I heard mad laughter in the background. I couldn't see the source of the laughter, but it was a scary sound. The sound of madness.

Above the two, I could see the form of what appeared to be a bat lady. She was dark enough to blend into the night sky, but I could vaguely make out her appearance, she had wings to fly with and her eyes appeared to savor the fight going on below. Every time the naiad attacked, she would smile and her white fangs became visible. I recognized the creature alright. It was one of the Keres, but why was it here? And what was making the mad laughter from the background?

After fighting for several minutes, the naiad seemed to calm down a little. She looked confused, "What am I doing? What's going on?" She seemed panicked, and then a spirit seemed to fly out of the forest behind her and flew straight through the naiad. The naiad tensed and stood upright, then proceeded to attack the dryad again.

Beside me, I felt Zoë stiffen and let out a small gasp, "Lyssa," she whispered.

I turned to her, "Who?"

She looked at me and I could see panic in her eyes. "Be careful and don't make noise, if Lyssa finds us, we are doomed." The fear in her voice worried me, but I needed to help the naiad and the dryad, they clearly didn't want to fight, something was forcing the naiad to. Before I could jump in though, the Keres flew down and attacked the dryad, killing her. I was about to go kill the Keres, but for some reason Zoë held me back.

"Don't move and don't get noticed," she whispered to me.

I didn't know what was going on, but if it was scaring Zoë, then I figured I should be scared as well.

The naiad broke out of her mad frenzy and noticed her friend was dead. She screamed and dove into the creek right behind her crying. The Keres let loose and a terrible scream and then the spirit I had seen earlier walked up to the Keres. "Things are going well. The strength we get from these fights among friends will allow us to raise Nyx sooner than we had originally envisioned. Good work, but next time don't play with them so much, we will gather energy faster if you would just kill one of them sooner."

The Keres growled but didn't talk back. She flew off into the night and disappeared from view.

The spirit turned to look right at where we were hiding, "Hello sister," she said, "mother told me you were watching. You should know you can't hide from the night. Consider this a warning: if you continue to interfere with mother's plans, the next person I drive into a mad frenzy will be your precious boyfriend. I will make him kill you." When she was finished speaking, the spirit dissolved into the night.

I wasn't sure what the spirit had meant, but it had really shaken Zoë. Whatever the spirit was and had meant, it had really gotten to her. If the spirit claimed to be her sister, then it must have been a daughter of Nyx as well which meant that more of Nyx's children were gaining power and growing stronger.

I led Zoë back to the campsite and lay down with her. I rapped her in a hug and we fell asleep.

For the first time in a long time, I dreamt of Chaos. We were standing on the moon while looking down on the Earth.

Chaos turned to me, "I am sure you are aware that Nyx is trying to rise. Her prison grows weaker by the day. If it was possible for the prison to be broken from her side of it, she would already be freed, but instead, it must be broken from the outside. She has regained much of her power and is able to influence events on Earth. As you are aware, her children are helping her. Most likely, they fear what will happen if she is freed and they didn't help her.

"The greatest source of her power though, comes from an agreement with her old friend, Gaea. Nyx is providing the energy to help revive the titans and giants because she is getting help from Gaea. I am not sure about the details of their plan, but it appears they plan to overthrow the Olympians and form their own council. They cannot be allowed to succeed."

I looked at Chaos in surprise, "But Chaos, how do you expect me to fight a primordial? If it was just Gaea awakening, we could put her back to sleep again, but it sounds like Nyx is already back to her full power and is just waiting to be freed. Even with the power you have given me, I wouldn't stand a chance against Nyx in a fight."

Chaos looked a little uncomfortable about that. "Percy, I have given you the power to protect the Earth, but if Nyx rises, you are correct, you wouldn't stand a chance. In order to stop her, you must prevent her from being freed. In order to do that, you need to stop Gaea and Nyx's children. If you can put Gaea back to sleep again, there will be no one to channel Nyx's energy to the giants, titans, and children of Nyx."

That seemed like a good idea to me, except for one thing, "Chaos, if we put Gaea back to sleep, won't Nyx just use her power to wake her up again? You said it yourself that Nyx is almost at full power."

Chaos sighed, "When you put her to sleep, you just left her trapped in the Earth, this time when you put her to sleep, you must isolate her being and trap it into a prison that Nyx's energy cannot reach. I myself cannot get involved in this any more than I already am. I cannot bring myself to imprison or fight my own children, no matter how much I may want to. You and Zoë are my way of fighting back and helping Earth."

Well, that plan seemed a lot better. I also liked how much Chaos seemed to trust us. "Chaos, how do we make a prison for Gaea? Can you do that or do the Olympians need to do it, or am I supposed to make it?"

"Ah, the prison. That is something the Olympians must make. They have never made a prison of the strength needed before, but they will be able to make it. You, Percy, are my connection to the Olympians. As much as you don't want to do it, you must be the one to deliver my message."

"Wait, why can't you tell them? You are Chaos, the creator of everything. They would listen to you."

Chaos seemed to ponder how to answer me for several moments, "Percy, I am the most powerful being in existence. If I told the gods what to do to defeat my children but didn't do it myself, they wouldn't trust me. Using you as a messenger though would get them to listen. You are a trusted demigod. The first one that all the gods have respect for and can trust. You have shown them your strength and told them of the threat that Nyx poses. Now if you tell them about Gaea and how to stop her, they will listen. If they do not, the world will fall. Now go, you have much to talk with Zoë about. This morning's events were hard on her. Then you must go to Olympus and offer your help."

With that, my dream ended and I awoke. The sun had risen and it appeared to be late morning. I turned my head and looked at Zoë. She was still asleep and appeared to be having no nightmares. I didn't want to wake her, but I knew that I had to. I hugged her tighter and felt her stir in my arms. I put my mouth right by her ear and whispered, "Wake up Zoë, it's almost noon and we have a big today ahead of us." She shivered a little as my breath touched her ear and she opened her eyes.

She turned her head so she could see me and sighed, "Percy, I was having good dreams, couldn't you have let me sleep for a little bit longer?"

I grinned and then sighed, remembering what had happened so early in the morning and what Chaos had told me in my dream. "Zoë, I'm sorry about waking you up, but Chaos visited my dream and we need to talk about what happened this morning."

She sat up and looked at me with a slightly panicked face, "Fine, but first we need to eat breakfast. Lets head into the city and get food."

That surprised me, normally she doesn't like going into the cities very much, but I agreed and teleported us to a diner in New York. We got seats and ordered our breakfast. The food was alright, but I guess I was a little to worried about the future to care. After we ate, we walked around the city before stopping in Central Park to talk.

"Zoë, what happened this morning? I know about the Keres, but who was that spirit that called you her sister?"

She sighed, "That was Lyssa, a daughter of Nyx and the spirit of mad rage. She can force you to go crazy and attack your friends or anyone around you for that matter. She isn't exactly a nice being. I couldn't let you interfere because I was afraid if you did, she would make you go crazy and I wouldn't be able to fight you. As hard as it was, if you had tried to interfere, she could have easily attacked you and made you attack me and then one of us would have ended up dead. So I held you back.

I shuddered at the thought of being forced to attack Zoë. Lyssa could be a very dangerous enemy. I could tell that Zoë was as scared as I was about her, so I wrapped her in a hug.

She looked up at me and asked, "What did Chaos tell you? You seem to be quite worried about whatever it is."

I nodded then told her about my dream and what Chaos had told me to do. The idea bothered her as much as it did me. When I was done she looked at me, "So Chaos wants us to reveal ourselves to the Olympians and explain the threat to them. We are supposed to convince them of the danger they are in and how they need to handle it. You're right, this is going to be a long day."

I sighed and then smiled at her, "Well, at least I will have you by my side as I explain this to them. That should be enough to make this easier for me. I have a question though. Should we have the immortal campers there as well? They will probably be important in the upcoming battles and I feel like the gods may not tell them everything if they aren't on Olympus."

Zoë contemplated my question, "I suppose we should have them there. I mean, at worst they will just sit there and add nothing to the discussion but they might also be able to provide idea's that the gods and us can't come up with."

I agreed with her, "Well I suppose that makes sense. Now, lets get this over with. The sooner we get this started, the sooner it will end." With that, I teleported us up to Olympus.

The two of us walked with our hoods up through the streets of Olympus towards the throne room. Many of the creatures looked at us strangely, but none approached us. We got to the throne room doors and I pushed them open. Together, we walked in.

Present in the throne room was Zeus, Hera, Demeter, and Aphrodite. They seemed to be having quite the argument going, but as soon as we walked in, they went silent before I could figure out what it was. We stopped in the middle of the throne room and bowed before Zeus.

Zeus looked at us before speaking, "You are the two hooded figures that sent us the message a while back. You are the ones who defeated Hyperion and sent him to Tartarus. Now that you are here, you may not leave this room. You are m prisoners until I decide otherwise. Now speak, tell me why you are here and perhaps I will let you leave in peace."

I bowed once more before speaking, "My apologies Lord Zeus. I had wished to keep my identity a secret from you all and it appears that Apollo did not inform you of who I am, I must thank him for that later. As for why we are here now, well that is a much larger issue. I will tell you, but I would prefer to only have to tell you once, so I was hoping to get an audience with all of the gods and the immortal campers to explain the dangerous situation the world is in. If you grant this request, I will show you who I am and so will my companion. I promise you that I mean no harm."

After that, I stood there next to Zoë, waiting patiently for Zeus's answer. Finally, after several minutes had passed, he spoke. "Fine. It shall be as you requested. The other Olympians shall be summoned and I will have the immortal campers brought as well."

He then called for Hermes and sent him to go inform the gods that they were needed on Olympus and then go and gather the immortal campers. Over the course of the next half hour or so, god and goddesses flashed in and sat in their thrones. No one spoke, but they all seemed fine with staring at us. Artemis looked at us and smiled and I thought I saw recognition in her eyes. Oh well, I figured Apollo had only told her who we were because of Zoë, and I couldn't really blame him for that.

Finally, Hermes flashed in with the immortal campers as well. I groaned when I realized that Daniel was among them. _Great, _I thought, _he is going to be a problem. As soon as I reveal myself he is going to do something stupid. Oh well, maybe I can relieve some of my stress by beating him senseless._

After several moments of silence had passed, Zeus spoke, "I am sure all of you are wondering why I have summoned you. Well, these two unknown people have agreed to inform us of who they are." When he said that, I saw Nico's eyes widen in surprise. He probably didn't think I would reveal myself so soon.

Zeus continued, "The man said he wanted to tell us the true nature of the problems we are currently facing and what he seems to think should be done about it. Unless they prove to be our enemies, do not attack them or interrupt them. Save the questions for the end." He then gestured to me and Zoë, "Now you two, explain why you have come."

I took a deep breath to gather my thoughts before speaking, "Thank you all for coming. Now, I'm sure the thing that you all are wondering is just who we are," I gestured to myself and Zoë, "the answer to that can come in multiple ways. All you need to know is that we are the Guardians of Earth, however, the one who gave us that title has requested we reveal ourselves to you so that you will trust and believe in what we have to say. Hopefully that is the right move, but I guess it is time to find out."

Trying to talk in such a formal manner was killing me. I had no experience being polite and formal, so trying to come up with the proper words was quite hard. I figured if they knew who I was now as opposed to at the end of what I had to say, they wouldn't expect me to talk as formally. So I removed my hood. As I took my hood down, Zoë did the same with hers.

Once we did, we both turned and looked each person and god in the eye, making sure they each knew who we were. It was truly entertaining to see all the different facial expressions people had.

My father looked absolutely flabbergasted, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Zeus looked like he wanted to yell at me and curse me. Ares appeared to be in the process of choking on a mouse, his eyes caught fire and his sword appeared in his hands. Athena looked at us and appeared to be unable to comprehend what stood before her. Aphrodite could feel the love and had a huge smile on. Hestia was smiling kindly at me; I always had liked her because she was nice and actually cared about everyone.

I looked at the demigods and saw similar faces. Annabeth looked on the verge of tears, Nico had told me what had happened after I left so I know that she had missed me. Clarisse actually smiled at me before she could suppress it and replace it with a glare. Daniel though, that was the best. He looked like he was trying to shit an elephant out and his whole body was shaking in anger. I thought he was going to bust an artery or something with his rapidly rising blood pressure, or maybe his heart would explode. Unfortunately, he just stood there shaking in anger.

Thalia looked shocked at first, but then she smiled at me. I turned to look at Nico and actually smiled at him. I gave him a little wave and he laughed. That seemed to break the tension and questions poured of people.

Everyone tried to talk at once and I couldn't understand any of them. Luckily, no one was mobbing us so we could just stand there and watch this take place. After several minutes of everyone yelling, two people yelled my name simultaneously.

"PERCY JACKSON!" Screamed Annabeth and Daniel. Both in a completely different tone of voice.

I saw Annabeth about to run towards me, but several people held her back. I wondered why, so I followed their gazes and saw Zoë with her bow drawn and an arrow pointed right at Annabeth. I then turned to Daniel and saw that he had finally regained enough composure to draw his sword and glare at me.

I turned to face Zeus, "Lord Zeus, it appears that there are several things that need to be addressed and taken care of before I can tell you all what I wanted to tell you. Do you mind if we address these other matters first?"

Zeus looked at me and said, "Fine. I suppose you will tell us your story later. For now, deal with Daniel and any other problems that pop up."

I bowed, "Thank you." I then turned to face Daniel. _Well, this should be fun._

**And the chapter is finished. You will have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happens in this confrontation.**

**I want to say thanks to all those who review, it is rather fun and exciting getting reviews. Also, this chapter should put me over 100 reviews, which will be pretty cool. **

**Several people have mentioned my POV switching. Hopefully it hasn't been a problem and I try my best to not let it be too distracting. Some chapters just feel like they need more POV's while others don't require as many. Part of it has to do with the fact that I want my chapters to be relatively long because I don't like reading short chapters and so I don't want to write short chapters. **

**More good news. The total views in the USA are OVER 9000!**

**Also, there are 11 countries with over 100 views and several more almost to 100. It's pretty cool seeing where in the world people are reading from.**

**As always, if you have questions or comments, let me know in a review or PM. Same goes for suggestions, idea's, or POV's that you want. **

**Ha, that whole chapter was one POV. Oh well, I will have multiple POV's next time. Probably. **

**Also, you guys are all amazing human beings and don't let anyone tell you differently.**


	13. Chapter 13

**I hope you guys are excited for this chapter; it should be a good one. Probably. Assuming I manage to do a good job writing it.**

**Well, this story was over 40,000 words after 12 chapters, I have no clue how long it will end up being when finished.**

**This time I am listening to some Canadian Brass. Great group of terrific brass players. If you like that kind of music, they are worth listening to.**

**Anyway, onwards and upwards.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Poseidon POV

I was stunned. Percy, my son Percy, was back. Not just that though, he was the super powerful mysterious guy we have been wondering about. Percy, who had disappeared almost six years ago, had managed to become more powerful than I am. And now he was standing in the middle of the throne room grinning like this was the funniest thing ever.

As I sat there stunned, Percy scanned the entire room. He waved at Nico, who probably already knew that this guy was Percy, and then everyone started asking questions. I wanted to join in, but I couldn't form words. I saw Annabeth try to run towards him, but her friends held her back for some reason. I wondered why and looked around, finally noticing the woman who was with Percy. She surprised me almost as much as Percy. She was supposed to be dead and she hated men. So why was she with Percy and alive?

I noticed that she had her bow drawn and aimed right at Annabeth and figured that that was why her friends were holding her back. I then looked at Daniel, and he seemed to be as surprised as I was, except he was angry surprised while I was happy. I watched as Daniel's face turned from red to purple as he trembled with rage. As Percy was talking to Zeus about something, I saw Daniel finally gather enough control to draw his sword. He looked like he was going to attack Percy from behind, but before he could, Percy turned around and glared at him.

Zoë POV

I saw Percy go to lower his hood, so I did the same thing. The silence that followed was deafening. No one moved, breathed, or said anything. It was like everyone in the throne room had been frozen. I turned to look at everyone.

I smiled at Lady Artemis. Even though I could no longer be a huntress, she would always be my favorite Olympian. Artemis and Thalia were both smiling at me. I turned and saw Nico, and when he looked at me, I realized that Percy had never told him about me because he looked like he was about to pass out. Apollo just sat on his throne grinning because he already knew who we were and was now able to enjoy the others reactions.

Finally, I turned to the campers. Daniel looked at me quickly, but was too focused on Percy to care much about me. I was tempted to kill him for what he did to Percy, but I decided that that was Percy's job. I then looked over at Annabeth.

She was staring at Percy as if she expected him to run over and hug her and forgive her and love her again. It took all of my self-control to not shoot her the face just for looking at Percy that way. I could feel my rage growing inside of me, but when she had the nerve to scream Percy's name and try to run to him, I couldn't control it anymore. I pulled my bow off my back and loaded it, pointing directly at her chest. She didn't seem to notice, but her friends did and pulled her back. Lucky her, if that hadn't happened, I would have fired.

I could hear Percy talking to Zeus, but I didn't pay it much attention, I was too focused on Annabeth and hoping she would give me an excuse to shoot her. Eventually, Percy turned around and I saw him glare at Annabeth before turning to Daniel. _Well, this should be interesting, _I thought.

Percy POV

I looked at Daniel and his sword. His face was still red with anger, but he seemed to be slowly regaining control over himself. I smiled at him and said, "Hey Daniel, it sure has been a while. How has life been treating you?"

Just as he had finally regained his composure, his face turned purple with rage and he charged at me. I laughed as he ran at me without thinking. He tried to swing at me, but he was so enraged and unfocused that the swing was quite easy to dodge. I then smacked the elbow of his sword arm and heard a snap as it bent the wrong way. I then grabbed him by the neck and threw him back to the campers.

He landed with a thud on the marble ground, screaming in pain. As he landed, everyone finally stopped talking and started watching what was going on. After about a minute, he stopped screaming and managed to fish some ambrosia out of a pouch on his belt and ate it. His arm appeared to mend itself so I figured the food had done its job.

He stood up and glared at me, "Welcome back Percy. I bet you think you are better than me or something because you managed to get one lucky swing in. Well let me tell you, you have nothing on me. I was better than you when you left, and now that you are back I will just prove it to you again. Hopefully once I do, you disappear again as well."

When he stopped talking, several people looked like they wanted to argue with him, but I shut them up by speaking first, "Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. You were never better than me, you just showed me that my home wasn't at camp. So I left and found a new home. That is all. Now, as happy as I am to be reunited with my _favorite _half-brother, I am here on business and our little squabble is getting in the way of that. If you wouldn't mind, could we save the part where I beat you up until after this meeting is done?"

Several people were snickering at my comments, but Daniel just appeared to get even angrier. It took quite a bit of effort to keep my laughter on the inside from being vocalized. Daniel glared at me and tried to intimidate me, "Ha, you could never beat me," he boasted, "I am the strongest son of Poseidon ever to be born, there is no way I would lose to you."

I didn't even bother to hide my laughter anymore. I couldn't help it. This guy had gotten even more conceited since the last time I had seen him. His face was turning purple from his anger while mine was turning purple from my laughter. I finally calmed down enough to speak, "Whatever man. If you think you can beat me, then you can believe that. For now though, we have a meeting that needs to commence."

He glared at me, trying to find something to say, before his eyes came to rest on Zoë. He then gave me a sneer and said, "I see. You are just afraid of looking bad in front of your new girlfriend. Afraid that just like your old one, she's going to realize that I'm better and ditch you for me. I get it. Also, I must say, it will be much more fun taking this one from you. She is way hotter. You might be a weakling, but your taste in girls seems to be pretty good. I can't wait to see how good of a kisser this one is."

I wasn't laughing anymore. I turned to look at Zoë and saw that if I didn't do something now, she would kill him. Everyone in the throne room was silent. I turned back to face Daniel and saw that he had his arrogant smile on his face. I glared at him and he flinched back a little bit. I uncapped Riptide and pointed it straight at Daniel. "You can say whatever you want to say about me, but if you bring Zoë into this, I will show you no mercy. If you had just wanted a fight, I would have given you one, but now you have crossed a line and you will get more than a fight. You will get hell."

All the campers flinched backwards at the glare I was giving Daniel and the gods that could feel the hatred radiating from my body seemed to be a little worried as well. Daniel was practically cowering in his shoes, his earlier bravado long gone. He seemed to have realized that he was screwed. I figured I had scared him pretty good, but after a moment, he regained his composure and raised his sword again and all the campers backed away from him. That was all the invitation I needed.

I ran towards him and he met my charge with his own. I had to hold myself back to prevent from beating him too quickly. I met every swing of his sword with my own and dodged every jab and thrust he made. His skills had improved slightly since when I had left, but he was still nowhere near my level. As we fought, I would give him a small cut every so often and over time, he slowed down. He was running out of energy and bleeding from his many cuts. He hadn't managed to even touch me with his sword. After about five minutes, he collapsed onto the floor.

I kicked his sword away and stood over him with my sword at his throat. "So, Daniel, I hear they made you immortal. Out of curiosity, how immortal is that? If I kill you, will you reform over time and come back? Or are you like the hunters where if you die in battle you stay dead? Also, what happened to your talk about how easily you could beat me? You are lying on the ground exhausted and cut up, while I haven't even broken a sweat yet. That was barely a warm-up for me."

Daniel glared at me, but didn't seem to have the energy to respond. Zeus, however, answered my question, "In order to allow them to still fight in wars and battles, we could only give them partial immortality. If they had become full immortals, they would be bound by the ancient laws to not interfere. If you kill him, he will stay dead."

I nodded to Zeus and thanked him. I then turned back to Daniel, "Well Daniel, I am a nice guy, so I'm going to give you a choice: apologize to everyone you have hurt and swear on the Styx that you will stop being so conceited, or you can have me put you out of your misery and let me kill you. I don't normally like killing people; in fact, I have never done it before; but you are what is wrong in this world, so I will not hesitate to end your existence unless you try to change your ways."

He glared at me and tried to spit at me. I vaporized the spit as soon as it left his mouth. I then superheated the water in the blood on his skin and he screamed in pain. I dug my sword into his neck a little bit and glared at him, "Last chance, Daniel. What's it going to be? Apologize and swear to change your ways, or death? I can make it quite painful. I will slowly heat up the blood in your body, once it gets too hot, you will die. The only way to make it stop is to apologize or ask for a quick death."

I slowly began heating the blood in his body and after about 30 seconds, he gave up. "Fine. I'm sorry for everything I have done and I swear on the Styx to change my ways and be a good person."

I cooled his blood back to its original temperature and grinned at him, "There, that wasn't so bad. Just be careful now, if you go against what you swore on the Styx, your life will end." I capped my sword and walked back over to Zoë.

She smiled at me and said, "Percy, you are way too nice. I would have killed him and you should have, but you just can't do it. Oh well, I guess that's part of the reason I love you." She then kissed me and everyone in the throne room gasped.

Zoë POV

I watched in amusement as Percy dealt with Daniel. Personally, I would have really tortured the guy and killed him. He was a perfect example of what was wrong with so many of the boys in the world. However, he was Percy's problem to deal with, so I left him to it. What annoyed me though, were the looks the girls were giving him. They all seemed mesmerized by him.

Now, most of the camper girls who were mesmerized by him were obviously in a relationship, so it didn't bother me too much. Except for Annabeth, the look on her face made me really want to beat some sense into her. Then the goddesses. Most of them were just staring in awe at his skill, but Aphrodite was ogling him a bit too much for my liking. It was weird, I had never considered myself the jealous type, but I felt like I needed everyone to know that Percy was mine and that they couldn't have him.

As soon as Percy walked back over to me, I told everyone that I loved him, and then I proceeded to kiss him. After I did that, the looks on everyone's faces was priceless. Everyone who knew who I was, which was almost everyone, was completely shocked at what I had done. Artemis just smiled at me though, I knew Percy was one of the only males she had respect for, so she didn't mind what I had done. Aphrodite looked disappointed that she couldn't have Percy, but after I glared at her, she seemed resigned to the fact that he was mine.

Annabeth appeared to be almost as angry as Daniel had been when he first saw Percy. She was glaring daggers at me, but I just glared right back at her. Luckily, Annabeth was smarted than Daniel and she didn't try to attack me, all she did was speak, "What are you talking about," she spat at me, "You are a huntress, you are not allowed to love a man, and Percy is mine, he loves me, not you. I used to respect you, Zoë, but if you get between me and Percy, I will not show mercy."

I then drew my bow and fired four arrows. One lodged in each of her arms and legs, effectively disabling them. She let out a scream of pain, but I just glared at her, "You, girl, have no right to talk. You cheated on Percy for that scum of a boy who Percy just beat up. You do not deserve Percy. Percy once loved you, but you betrayed him and broke him. It took him quite a while to get over his heartbreak, but together, the two of us were able to recover and learn to love again. Percy may forgive you for what you did, but he will never love you again." I then turned away from her and faced the front again.

I don't know what Annabeth was doing, but Athena spoke up, "Don't, Annabeth. Zoë is right. You messed up and now you must deal with the consequences of your actions. If you do anything more to Zoë or Percy, I will disown you. Be wise and get over the past so you can move on."

I saw Percy looking at me, wondering if I had anything else left to say, I realized I did and turned to Lady Artemis, "My Lady, I was brought back to life to serve as a Guardian of Earth, during the course of my second life, I have fallen in love with Percy Jackson, hopefully you won't think any less of me."

Artemis looked at me before smiling and responding, "No, Zoë, I will not think less of you. I know you well enough that if you love Percy, then he must be a good man. I already knew he was worthy of respect and it is good to see the both of you happy."

I nodded my thanks and turned to face Zeus.

Percy POV

Well, now that Daniel and Annabeth had been deal with, I figured it was time to get back to the topic of the meeting, "Lord Zeus, now that those little matters have been taken care of, we can get back to the meeting."

Zeus looked at me and said, "Yes, that would be nice. I would like to know what you have to say as well as how you acquired your power."  
>I smiled a little before responding, "As you know, both myself and Zoë are Guardians of Earth. Originally, it was just supposed to be me, but after five years had passed and I was only getting lonelier, I asked for a companion to share my role with and travel with me. The one who granted me my powers and title agreed to my request and returned Zoë to life to work alongside me."<p>

Zeus interrupted me, "Yes, that is all good, but WHO gave you your power and returned Zoë to life?"

I sighed, "Lord Zeus, it is best if you figure that out for yourself, by the time I am done telling you what I need to tell you, I am sure you will be able to guess who it was. If you can't figure it out, I'm, sure at the least Lady Athena will be able to figure it out," I nodded at her and she smiled at me.

Zeus interrupted me once more, "Perseus, since when do you show such respect to us gods? I do appreciate it and all, it just seems out of character for you."

I smiled at him, "Well, because you have yet to do anything to anger me, I am showing you respect. I also don't want to make you mad seeing as we are going to need to work together in the future. You see, as I told Apollo not long ago, Nyx is trying to rise."

The campers all gasped, apparently the gods were still keeping secrets. I sighed, at least the campers were learning the truth now.

"As I was saying, Nyx is trying to rise and break out of her prison. In order to do that, she needs her forces on the outside to gather enough energy to break the prison from the outside. In order for this to happen, she in channeling her energy to Gaea, Gaea's children, and her own children, so that they may gather the necessary energy to break her prison."

Apollo interrupted me, "Why didn't you tell me this when you originally told me that Nyx was rising? That is important information."

"Apollo, if I had known then, then I would have told you, unfortunately, I wasn't made aware of this until last night, or technically this morning, due to a dream conversation with the one who gave me my power. Anyways, it appears that Nyx and Gaea are working together, hoping to overthrow you gods and set themselves over the world with the titans and giants and several of Nyx's children serving as lesser rulers."

Athena interrupted me this time, "Wait, you make it sound as if Nyx is fully awakened, that can't be possible can it? And if she is, why doesn't she break herself out of prison?"

I smiled at her, "Good questions. From what I was told about her prison, it can only be broken from the outside so she is channeling her energy to Gaea to help wake her up again in order to be broken out of her prison. Also, yes, Nyx is fully awake. If she is freed, there will be nothing we can do to stop her. This is what I was sent to tell you. I was also given a general plan of action that should prevent the worst from happening."

Zeus, who was looking quite pale, looked at me and spoke, "You seem to know a lot, as does whoever is giving you information, how do we know you aren't working for the enemy?"

I sighed, "That is why I revealed myself to you. My master believed that if you knew our identities, you would have an easier time trusting us since you know that we are on your side. I supposed there is no way to prove we are on your side other than giving you my word, but that will have to do. As for the plan, Gaea needs to put back to sleep before she reawakens completely."

Athena objected immediately, "Gaea was put to sleep six years ago, if we put her to sleep again, won't Nyx just reawaken her again? We can't afford to fight a massive war every six years in order to prevent Nyx's rise. Eventually, we would lose. There must be more to the plan than that."

I once again smiled at her, "I see you truly have earned your title as the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. Yes, the plan has more to it. The rest of it involves something only you gods are capable of. You must create a new prison for Gaea to trap her in. Her essence must be caught and contained in a new prison where Nyx's energy cannot reach her to reawaken her. If Nyx's energy cannot be channeled through Gaea, she will have no one to channel her energy and free her and will eventually fall back asleep."

The gods stared at me like I was crazy. After several minutes of silence, Zeus spoke, "Percy, us gods can create prisons for powerful beings, such as the titans, giants, or even Typhon, but a primordial is far beyond our power to control. The time and energy it would take to create such a prison would be crazy. We have never attempted to make such a prison and even if we could do it, it would prevent us from helping out in the war itself. How could you hope to win a war against the titans, giants, Nyx's children, and Gaea without the Olympians helping you? We have seen examples of your strength, but not even you would be able to win such a war."

"The one who sent me here to tell you of this threat and explain the plan, told me that they would have offered to help, but you wouldn't have trusted them. So this was the plan that is being put in motion. We probably have a year before the war begins, but you Olympians must create the prison. If we need the help of gods, hopefully the minor gods will be enough help. As for how powerful myself and Zoë are, I am not quite sure because I have never been pushed to my limits. I was told then once I achieved my full power, I would be as strong as you, father, and Hades combined, but I have never faced a test of my power that pushed me to my limits. I would assume the same is true for Zoë. The two of us may not be able to win the war alone, but we should be able to be quite helpful during the battles. The two of us combined will fight Gaea and force her back to sleep so she can be trapped in a new prison. That is the plan that was outlined to me, I was told that you would be capable of creating the prison if you tried your hardest. The one who gave me my powers knows your powers quite well."

Zeus seemed rather stunned, as did most of the beings in the room. I guess the thought of me and Zoë being as powerful as the three most powerful gods combined was a little hard to believe. Finally, Zeus spoke, "If you truly are that strong, then the plan may work out. I am still curious as to who gave you your power and information. Unless I know who it is, I can't fully trust you."

I looked at Athena, who seemed to be thinking quite hard. After about a minute of hard thinking, she got a strange look on her face and gasped, "No. It can't be," she looked at Zoë and me, "Can it? There is no way that he would do this."

I nodded at her, "Yes actually it is him. Although actually Chaos does not like to be referred to as a specific gender. Instead, Chaos insists on being called Chaos with no other attachments."

Athena nodded dumbly as the Olympians and campers gasped. Zeus spluttered for words before figuring out how to talk again, "What? You mean you work for Lord Chaos? No way. No one ahs head from Lord Chaos ever."

I sighed, "This is what I meant when I said you wouldn't believe me. Also, just refer to Chaos as Chaos. I was told that Chaos likes this planet and wants it to remain te way it is with you Olympians as rulers, but Chaos can't fight the primordials because Chaos is there parent, so he has volunteered Zoë and myself to fight instead. Chaos figured you wouldn't trust Chaos to fight the primordials but you would trust both Zoë and myself. That is the plan. Do you agree top work with it or will you try your own thing and get the world destroyed? I would rather not have to force you to accept the plan."

Zeus glared at me when I threatened to force him to follow the plan, "Watch your mouth demigod, I am still the king. We also do not know whether we should believe you about Chaos or not." As if to answer his doubt, a dark spiral formed above Zoë and myself. It was the darkest black imaginable and it was filled with what appeared to be galaxies.

The sign stuck around for several minutes during which no one made any noise. The gods stared at it with fear while the campers just seemed stunned. It was like being claimed, except not by our parent but Chaos. Finally I spoke up, "Well, if that didn't make you believe we work for Chaos, then how about we think this through. What other being would be able to retrieve Zoë's spirit from the stars and yet leave her constellation in the sky? Only Ouronus or Chaos. Which of those beings would be willing to fight against the rise of Gaea? Ouronus still loves her even if she did betray him, so he wouldn't do it. He won't try to take over, but he won't stop it either. Which other being could increase my power and Zoë's power so much so fast and still keep us hidden from you? It is rather unbelievably, but there aren't any other possibilities are there?"

Zeus glared at me for several minutes before talking, "Fine. I guess that makes sense. As for your plan, us gods will discuss it and make a decision. In the meantime, you two need to stick around so we can contact you when we want to."

I nodded, "That is a good idea. We can't stay out in the wilderness for now because Nyx and her children can find us out there. If we stay in an area protected by the gods, she is not yet powerful enough to find us there. I don't like it, but it is the only choice."

Zeus then said, "Fine. Return to camp with the immortal campers and we will call you if we need you. You can stay in the bighouse if you want to."

I bowed before Zeus, "Thank you. Now, we will be off as you requested." Then, before the gods or campers could say anything else, I teleported Zoë and myself to the border of camp.

Zoë grabbed my hand and looked at me, "Are you sure you are ready for this? This place holds many memories for you, not all of which are good."

I sighed, "I know, but this is the only safe place for us right now since the gods won't let us stay on Olympus and I don't really want to make them mad until after we defeat Gaea and end this war. Hopefully, it won't be too bad."

She smiled at me and gave me a hug, "Don't worry Percy, I will be here for you if you need anything, now lets go."

I smiled at her and thanked her. I grabbed her hand and together we walked down the hill and into camp.

**Haha, a long chapter. And it is now finished.**

**Well, I want to thank all those who review and read and other good things like that.**

**Also, FanFiction is being weird. It hasn't updated viewer stats since midway through yesterday. I know more people have viewed my story because I am getting review still, it's just the view counter isn't going anymore and supposedly no one has looked at my story today even though I have gotten several new reviews. I don't know what it is, but is obnoxious. I really want to geek out on my stats and stuff, but I can't. Oh well. Hopefully this problem gets fixed soon.**

**Anyways, this chapter is nearly 5000 words without the author's notes, so hopefully you enjoyed it. **

**Let me know what you think in a review or PM and as always, send me suggestions and POV's that you want the same way. I enjoy any feedback you can give me.**

**One last thing before I go, beware the night, for that is where Lady Nyx resides and can send her children to drive you mad or haunt your dreams. **

**Have fun and enjoy your lives.**


	14. Chapter 14

**La de da de da, here goes chapter 14**

**This time I'm listening to some Chopin, but just for fun I mixed in some Franz Ferdinand. I must say it makes for a strange combination.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Chiron POV

It had been a strange month. Ever since the meeting to discuss the whereabouts of Percy Jackson, Olympus had been in a state of panic. Today was just another example of that. Hermes had shown up a little before noon and insisted on having all of the immortal campers present on Olympus for an emergency meeting. He had gathered them up and teleported away without giving me any clue as to what they were talking about. I was glad the campers had gone because I knew they would tell me what had happened if the gods didn't. You would think that after serving them for thousands of years they would have a little more trust in me, but they still insisted on keeping things from me.

Ever since Percy had disappeared, they had been panicked about the hole he left behind in terms of strength and leadership. If any other ancient deity decided to make a comeback and attack, the gods would be in trouble. After Percy left and the camp fell into a little bit of chaos, the gods realized just how fragile the world of demigods were and tried to make certain amends and take certain precautions in the case of future conflict. They made the cabin councilors and other hero's of the two previous wars immortal in the hopes that it would provide stability and leadership for the future of demigods.

Anyways, I sat there pondering all the profound changes that a single demigod had caused the Olympians. Perseus Jackson was truly an exceptional human being and demigod. He was the most powerful one I had ever trained, and my favorite as well. He had always been humble and shied away from attention, preferring to share the glory with others and hide from the spotlight. He had a true heart and was willing to do anything to help those around him. After the campers had betrayed him and he left, I assumed he would end up dead, but he we were nearly six years later and he was still alive somewhere. I prayed he would return once more just so I could talk to him at least once more and let him know he was always welcome.

My thoughts were interrupted by a commotion from outside. Some of the campers were yelling something that sounded like an attack on something. It was hard to make out what exactly and with the immortal campers gone, I figured I would have to deal with the problem. I stood up out of my wheelchair and walked out of the bighouse. As I turned towards half-blood hill where the commotion seemed to coming from, I saw two figures walking down the hill and into camp. Several of the campers had weapons drawn to fight, but before anyone could charge or attack, the weapons were dropped and the campers looked surprised and scared. I trotted towards the hill with my bow out in case the figures were indeed attacking. I doubted they were since you would have to be a demigod to enter, but you could never be too careful.

I got close enough to make out faces and dropped my bow in shock. Walking down the hill towards me, hand-in-hand no less, were Percy Jackson and Zoë Nightshade. There were so many things that seemed wrong about the picture I wasn't sure where to start, but before I could get over my shock, Percy saw me and waved before changing direction and walking over to me. Some of the campers tried to stop him, but I told them to stand down and found myself trotting up to meet Percy and Zoë.

"Wha- how? What is going on?" I managed to choke out.

Percy POV

I laughed at the expression on my old teachers face. "Chiron, it is good to see you again. I have missed you these last several years," as I answered his question, I gave him a hug. It was nice seeing him again, I had always felt a little bad about leaving him without much explanation.

After several moments we broke apart and just stood there smiling at each other. Finally, Chiron spoke again, "It is good seeing you too, my boy. You must tell me what has been going on with you these last several years and maybe tell me how it is that Zoë seems to be alive again. Holding hands with you no less."

I blushed at his comment and he just chuckled. "Well, that truly is quite the story you wish me to tell you, and I promise I will tell you. For now though, you need to know that Zoë and I will be staying in the bighouse for a while. Once the campers get back from Olympus, they can explain things to you. The long and short of it though is that Zoë and I are the mysterious figures you have all been wondering about for the past several years. Well, last six or so years for me, Zoë has only been around for about half a year now. Anyways, I will tell you my story later and answer questions once the immortal campers have told you about the events that unfolded today on Olympus."

Chiron smiled at me, "Okay. I suppose I can wait a little while longer to hear your story. For now, you might want to introduce yourself to the campers before they try attacking you again. Speaking of which, how did you make them drop their weapons?"

I grinned at him, "Well Zoë here wanted to shoot the weapons out of their hands, but I thought that might just cause more problems, so I controlled the water in the air to pull the weapons free and drop them on the ground. My control over water has increased quite a bit over the years."

I turned and walked towards the arena. I figured as soon as I introduced myself the campers were going to want to see my powers and my fighting abilities for themselves, so the arena was the best place to go. As I started walking, Zoë smacked me in the side. "You make it sound as if I was going to shoot the campers. I'm not _that _evil."

I rolled my eyes, "No, you aren't _that _evil, but it would have been a little threatening to have someone they don't know shooting at them. If they flinched the wrong way and arrow could easily have wound up their arm or somewhere worse."

She grinned and smacked me again. Before I could get much further, I felt someone slam into me and give me hug. I looked down to see a young boy. He looked to be 13, maybe 14 years old and looked kind of like s son of Ares except more a little crazier and a little less buff. Instead of looking like a commanding officer or buff soldier, he would be the crazy guy playing with weapons and blowing stuff up. He looked up at me and grinned, "Dude, you're that guy that saved me and sent me here to camp. You are my hero. I have always wanted to meet you again so that I could thank you and see if you could help me get stronger. Some day, I want to be as strong as you are!"

I smiled at the kid. It was hard not to, I mean the guy was totally pumped up and excited and seemed to be in the best mood ever. I wasn't really sure how to handle the situation. Zoë noticed how uncomfortable I was and instead of helping me out, she just laughed at me. She looked at me and laughed a little more before finally speaking, "This is why I let you handle the demigods we save. I don't want to be the one they harass about being a hero or whatever."

I glared at her, "Really? I thought it was just because I was more experienced and you wouldn't be able to handle the job." She stopped laughing and punched me. I groaned, Zoë could punch pretty darned hard.

The kid who had been talking to me was looking at me with an expectant look on his face, "Okay, I will help you out a little while I am here, but first you need to tell me you name and your godly parent."

He smiled sheepishly, "Oh yeah, forgot about that. My name is Zak and my mother is Enyo, a minor war goddess. Who are you, by the way, you're my hero and I don't even know your name. All I know is you saved my life and you are stronger than that Percy guy people always talk about."

I cracked up at that. I couldn't help it, this kid was too much. He thought I was the greatest guy ever, even greater than myself. It was a really funny thought, and the way that Zak had said it with such force made it even funnier. Beside me, Zoë had heard what Zak had said and was laughing as well.

Before I could recover, Zoë turned to Zak and said, "You are a funny guy, but let me tell you something, Percy Jackson is way cooler than this guy could ever hope to be. Really, my friend here has nothing on Percy."

Zak looked a little offended by that while I tried my best to contain my laughter and glare at Zoë. After several moments, Zak looked like he was going to defend me, so I decided to speak up before he could, "Zak, don't listen to Zoë her, she doesn't know what she is talking about. I mean, technically, it is impossible for me to be better than Percy, but at the same time it is impossible to be worse than him. Zoë is just messing with you. I AM Percy Jackson. I never told you who I was because at that point I was trying to remain anonymous, but at this point, it doesn't really matter so I have no problem with letting you know."

He looked at me surprised for several seconds before getting a huge grin on his face, "COOL!" he shouted, "That just makes you even more awesome! You saved the world and won two wars and then you went and got even stronger still and go around saving lives. You are the COOLEST GUY EVER!"

At this point, we were at the arena and had quite the crowd surrounding us. Nobody seemed to be able to talk except for Zak who was going on about how amazing I was. The rest of the campers just seemed stunned that I was Percy Jackson. I wasn't sure how much of our conversation they had heard, but it was apparently enough for them to be staring at me, speechless.

I looked around and saw that Zoë was hiding in the shadows laughing at my uncomfortableness around people. I glared at her and she smirked at me. I turned to the campers and spoke to them, "Yes, I am Percy Jackson as well as the mysterious guy who has been going around saving demigods and sending them to camp." I then looked down at Zak, "Zak, I really appreciate all the great things you have to say about me, but I didn't do anything THAT amazing. For the two wars I helped win, I had tons of friends supporting me the whole way and they did most of the work. As for saving you demigods, defeating a few monsters and beating up the occasional mortal isn't that hard once you have trained plus for the last half a year or so I had Zoë helping me out. Make sure you all thank her for saving you as well."

I smirked at Zoë as all the demigods turned towards her and began harassing her with questions. She just glared back at me. After several minutes, Zoë managed to return their attention to me. I sighed, this was going to be obnoxious. They started bombarding me with questions and comments and I couldn't make out anything they were saying. I raised my hand to silence them and they complied.

An older child of Ares walked out of the crowd. I could tell he was a child of Ares because of the sneer on his face and his arrogant walk. He looked at me and said, "If you really are the great Percy Jackson, prove it to me. I challenge you to a duel." Most of the gathered campers gasped and tried to tell the kid to back down, but he just ignored them.

I silenced the campers, "I accept your challenge, but before we do this, at least tell me your name."

He looked at me and said, "My name is Trevor and if you aren't who you claim to be, I will skewer you with my sword." With that, he drew his sword. It was a traditional celestial bronze longsword. I stood across from him in the arena and uncapped riptide.

Riptide was a sword that could be used with one hand or two. If I used one hand, I could use two swords and move it about faster, but with two hands, I got more power. Since Trevor was using a two handed longsword, I went for a two handed grip to offset his. This would allow me to get more power behind my strikes since I was stronger than him, and I would still be able to use my reflexes to move faster than him because I had more training and experience.

Somebody in the audience coughed and Trevor used that as the signal to start. He lunged at me, going for a swipe at my ribs, but I blocked his swing. Before he could recover, I launched a swipe at his left arm, he managed to deflect the blow with his sword and I wasn't able to hit his arm on the downswing. However, as soon as he deflected my swing, I redirected it again and hit him full power in the sided with the flat of my blade. The blow knocked him onto the ground and left him gasping for air. I kicked his sword away and placed my sword at his throat. "Do you concede defeat?"

He looked at me and nodded, "I concede. You truly are skilled and strong. I guess I will believe you when you say you are Percy Jackson."

I lifted my sword and was about to recap it when I heard a familiar voice say, "Really Percy? You have been at camp for half an hour and you are already picking a fight with my little brother? Couldn't you have waited a little longer so that I could challenge you instead?"

I looked over and saw Clarisse glaring at me, "You want to fight? Your brother didn't put up much of a fight and after getting warmed up with Daniel, I could use a challenge."

She looked at me funny, "You destroyed Daniel. He couldn't even touch you. Sure I might have been at about the same level as him, but after seeing how easily you dealt with him, I would rather not embarrass myself. What I want to see is you against Zoë. You claimed that she was as strong as you and I want to see if that is true or not."

I smirked at Clarisse, "A child of Ares, scared of a fight," she glared at me, "oh well. No matter. I suppose I could have a little duel with Zoë. She is as good at fighting as me, except she has several thousand years of experience more than me. My advantage is that I have waterpower's, however when we spar, I don't use them because it gives me an incredibly unfair advantage." I turned to Zoë, "How about it? Want to show the campers how strong we are?"

She grinned at me, "Well, it has been a while since I last kicked your butt, so I suppose. Before we start though, don't you think we should gather all of the campers to watch us? Right now we are missing most of the immortal campers and they might want to see this."

I smiled at her, "I guess that might be a good idea. As for it having been a while since you last kicked my butt, that's because I have beaten you the last several times we dueled. Remember?"

She glared at me, "I let you win. It was part of the training. Regardless, I suppose we will learn now who is the best." She turned to Clarisse, "Tell the campers that I will be dueling Percy in half an hour and if they want to watch they shouldn't be late."

Clarisse nodded and walked off. I turned to go talk to Zoë, but she was busy stretching and loosening up for the fight. I figured that would be a good idea and was about o do the same when a certain son of Hades jumped out of the shadows in front of me.

"Hey Percy. It's been a while since I've talked to you in person. How are you?"

I smiled at him, "Hey Nico, it has been a while. I'm doing alright, although I'm about to have a duel with Zoë so in a little while I might not be doing so well…"

He smirked at me, "You can't beat her? Really? You have your waterpower's don't you? How can you lose?"

I looked at him, "Well, if I use my waterpower's, she doesn't stand a chance. When it comes to straight up combat, she has several thousand years of experience more than me so it is more of a challenge. Hopefully, nothing bad happens though. When we go at it with all our might, we sometimes destroy things without realizing it."

Nico smiled at me and laughed, "You really haven't changed at all. You are still as careless as always, but you should try to be careful. If you destroy the arena, Clarisse might kill you. Also, good job with Daniel. You didn't just beat him, you humiliated him and made him eat his words and face up to his actions. You even made him try to change his ways. I don't think he will ever change on the inside, but if his actions don't change, he is going to die in a nasty way to his swearing on the Styx. That really is a great torture for him."

I just nodded at that, "Well, I don't like killing people. I have never actually done it before. I don't know why, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. Oh well though, that is just part of who I am. Anyways Nico, I will talk to you more after my little duel with Zoë, it seems most of the campers have arrived so I am going to do a quick warm up and then it will begin."

Nico looked at me, "Well good luck. You're going to need it seeing as who your opponent is. The hunters can be quite vicious and deadly…"

He trailed off and I smirked at him, "Speaking from experience Death Breath?" He glared at me and I walked into the arena.

**Well, that's all for now. I know you guys are looking forward to a display of power and all, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to write the fight. Hopefully I end up doing a good job on it.**

**Finally, after nearly three days, my story stats are being updated again. I think the three days they weren't working are not going to be filled in, but I will get over it. It was kind of entertaining to see that chapter 13 had 0 views but 8 reviews.**

**Thanks for the reviews and stuff. It does help keep me motivated.**

**With spring break coming up, I might be a little busy and update only a two or three times a week for a little bit. Also, my dog might need to be put down at any time due to bone cancer, so if I go quiet for a while, that is why.**

**Send me any suggestions for the story, things I can improve on, or POV's you want in a review or PM.**

**Thanks for reading and enjoy your life, you only get one of them. Normally.**


	15. Chapter 15

**I have surpassed 50,000 words. In less than 3 weeks. I must say it is not as much work as I thought it was going to be. Every now and then I get stuck and take time off, but it never seems to take more than a day or so to get back to the story.**

**Now, onto the fifteenth chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the related works.**

Percy POV

I walked into the arena and began stretching. After fighting Daniel not too long ago, I was already kind of warmed up, but if I was really going to fight seriously, I wanted to make sure I was completely loose and relaxed.

As I stretched, I thought about the upcoming duel. Zoë was good. I watched her doing some target practice with her bow and although it appeared to e random shooting to most, I knew she was intentionally not aiming for the obvious targets. She could see all the details of what she was looking at, would pick a random flaw, and shoot at that.

She was also really fast; I knew that if I wasn't prepared, she could switch from close combat fighting to long-range archery in a matter of seconds. Since I still sucked at archery, I would have to try my hardest not to let that happen. I knew that this would be a lot of fun.

After several more minutes of stretching and warming up, I saw several flashes of light and noticed that most of the Olympians had shown up. I guess that someone had informed them of this duel and they wanted to see for themselves just what we were capable of.

I walked over to Zoë and grabbed her shoulder. She spun around and tried to punch me in the face at the same time, "Whoa there Zoë, no need to do that until the duel begins. I was just letting you know that the crows seems to have arrived and we can start whenever you are ready."

She smiled at me, "Well, Percy, as soon as you are ready to lose, we can get started." She then walked towards the center of the arena.

I followed her and we stood facing each other about ten feet apart. Zoë drew her hunting knives while I drew my two swords. I looked at her and smiled, "Well Zoë, lets give them a show. No killing and keep the maiming to a minimum, I won't use my waterpower's. I'm ready whenever you are, so let us begin."

Zeus POV

I had been sitting on my thrown thinking about what had happened during the meeting when an Iris message appeared in front of me. It was Dionysus down at camp Halfblood. He told me that Percy and Zoë were going to have a duel, and if I wanted to see them fight at full power and at their limits, I should come down to the arena at camp and watch.

Of course I wanted to see how powerful they really were. Percy had claimed that they were as strong as me and my two brothers combined. That was absolutely preposterous, so to see how strong they really were, I decided to go and watch. I told my fellow Olympians and most of them decided to go watch as well. Before I even flashed down to camp, Hermes was setting up a betting pool on who would win the fight.

When I got to the arena, I saw Percy stretching and Zoë shooting arrows randomly. At least what Percy was doing made sense. Hermes appeared with the other gods and walked over to me. He wanted me to place a bet. I told him I didn't care who won and pushed him away. Percy looked over at us and seemed to be a little surprised we had shown up, but he didn't make any comment. He walked over to Zoë and almost got punched in the face. I heard Artemis and Poseidon laugh at that. After conversing with Zoë for a little while, they both walked to the center of the arena and prepared to fight.

Percy announced the rules, no killing and minimal maiming and he also wouldn't use his waterpower's. I wondered what other powers he had that he might use. As soon as Percy told Zoë that she could attack whenever, Apollo and Hermes started acting like fight commentators. I wanted to blast them with my master bolt, but I didn't want to disturb the fight, so I just tuned them out.

At the start, the two just stood facing each other, staring each other down. They didn't blink and didn't move. For maybe 30 seconds, nothing happened, then, I saw Zoë's legs tense a little as she prepared to lunge. Percy noticed this and stepped back with his right foot and tensed himself as well, preparing for the moment when they clashed.

Faster than I had thought possible, Zoë ran, but not towards Percy. She took off to her right and immediately had her knives replaced with her bow. In barely two seconds she was firing arrows at Percy with deadly accuracy. At first, Percy had been too surprised to dodge, so at the last second he was forced to block the arrows with his swords. After several seconds of blocking the arrows, he regained the rest of his composure and charged towards Zoë, dodging most of the arrows and blocking the ones he couldn't dodge.

Zoë seemed to know exactly where to shoot so that he wouldn't be able to dodge and would instead have to block. She was also firing at an incredible rate. I looked over at my daughter, and Artemis seemed just as impressed by her skill and speed as I was. I looked back at the fight and watched as one of the arrows made it past Percy's swords and nicked his arm. He flinched slightly, but the arrow didn't dig into his skin, it just grazed his arm.

By this time, he had almost caught up to Zoë, and she seemed to realize this as well, because she suddenly changed directions and had her hunting knives out again. The two fighters met each other near the edge of the arena. Percy was not surprised by Zoë's sudden change in weapons this time, and managed to gracefully dodge her slashes and retaliate against her.

The two slowly fought their way towards the center of the arena. It appeared that Percy had the advantage with the close combat in terms of power and reflexes. The only thing that was keeping Zoë from being hit was her speed. As I watched, Percy almost cut Zoë's left arm, but she managed to drop her arm at the last second and move away from the slash, Percy then redirected his swing slightly and left a small gash on her side. Zoë didn't appear to even register the cut, because she kept swinging right back at him without a second's hesitation.

As they were dueling, sword to knife, I noticed that it was eerily quiet in the arena. No one was cheering or screaming, there was no more talking or noise. Everyone seemed frozen in awe by what they were seeing. I glanced over at the other gods who had come and saw that Ares appeared to be completely stunned. He didn't seem to be able to believe what he was seeing. Artemis was smiling in shock at her former lieutenant while Poseidon was staring on in awe at how skilled and strong his son was. Hermes and Apollo both looked like they wanted to keep commentating the fight, but couldn't think of the words they needed. Athena was quietly taking in the fight and I could tell she was analyzing every move they made, but I could also see the awe and fear in her eyes. I couldn't blame her for the fear, Percy and Zoë were fighting with more speed and power than I had ever seen before, it was truly mind-boggling how they could fight at this level for such a long time. I mean, this was just a friendly duel, so I knew that they weren't using any killing moves or their maximum power, but even with what they were showing, I didn't think even I would be able to defeat either of them one-on-one. I looked over a little more and saw Aphrodite staring at Percy. She was probably thinking about his body or something, so I didn't pay her much heed.

I looked back down on the fight and saw that Zoë had multiple cuts on her arms as well as the cut on her left side. Percy just had the cut from the arrow as well as a small cut on his right cheek. As I looked on, I saw Zoë suddenly change direction and sprint away. She replaced her knives with her bow once more. As Percy once more tried to run towards her, she started firing at him with the same accuracy as before, except this time, she did something strange.

Percy was dodging and blocking all of her arrows until one of them managed to hit him straight in the arm. I heard him curse and then glare at Zoë. They both stopped moving and Zoë was trying to contain her laughter. I heard Artemis let out a little laugh and wondered what had happened. It had seemed as if Percy was dodging everything, so how did this arrow manage to hit him? Artemis saw my expression and said, "She fired two arrows at once. Percy was so used to only one arrow, that he only noticed the arrow that was fired at him. When he dodged that arrow, the arrow he hadn't noticed got him in the arm."

I nodded my thanks for the explanation and then turned back to the fight. Percy pulled the arrow out of his arm and smiled at Zoë, "That was a nice little trick you pulled. I guess maybe I should try some tricks as well." He then ran towards Zoë once more.

As soon as Percy had finished talking, Zoë once again fired arrows at Percy. This time, I noticed the occasional shot would fire two arrows, but Percy wasn't going to be fooled by the same trick twice. It appeared though, that Percy's left arm was moving a little slower than before, causing him to have a little more difficulty dodging and blocking the arrows. I waited to see what kind of a trick Percy would pull off. I watched as Percy moved his swords to positions that wouldn't block the incoming arrows, and then right before the arrows could hit him, he disappeared.

Well, at first I thought he had, then I realized that he had just teleported to right behind Zoë. He hit her left shoulder with the butt of his sword, and she dropped her bow. Right before his other sword could take out her right arm, it was blocked by one of her hunting knives. She spun to face him, and the two began fighting in close combat again.

After another minute of fighting, the two were in the center of the arena again. Zoë's dropped bow was behind Percy, and Zoë couldn't get to her bow without getting past Percy first. After several more slashes, the two broke apart. As they were in the beginning, they stood about ten feet apart, staring each other down.

Zoë glared at Percy and spoke, "You said you weren't going to use power's."

Percy just smirked at her and said, "No, I said I wouldn't use my WATER power's. I never said I wouldn't teleport."

As the two stood staring each other down, I got a good look at how much damage they had taken. Percy had blood running off of his left bicep where the arrow had hit him, and several smaller cuts on that arm from Zoë's hunting knives. His other arm had no cuts or scratches at all, but since an arrow hit hadn't weakened it, that didn't surprise me. He still had a small cut on his cheek that had some blood running down his face, and he had picked up a small slash to his right side on his ribcage. Zoë had multiple slashes to both of her arms that were bleeding, as well as a large gash on her right side and two smaller cuts on her left.

Zoë charged at Percy, trying to get around him to claim her bow again, but Percy wasn't letting her to that. The two met up and their blades crossed. They went back to slashing at each other, but I could tell Zoë was trying to get around Percy. I could tell that cuts on her arms were slowing down her strikes, but since she really only had to worry about one of Percy's swords, she wasn't getting hit anymore. Suddenly though, something happened. Percy ducked a high slash from Zoë and instead brought both of his swords together on her other knife. One sword hit towards the tip while the other hit towards the hilt with one sword on either side. She force of the blows jerked the knife out of her hands and sent in spiraling about 30 feet away.

Percy then pushed her against the arena wall and pinned her other hand to the wall. He had dropped one of his swords to pin her hand, and with his other hand, he placed his sword at her throat. During this movement though, we all missed something. Zoë had somehow gotten a knife back in her other hand, and as soon as she was pinned against the wall, she put her knife against Percy's throat.

I could see Zoë grinning at Percy, but since his back was to me, I couldn't see his expression. I could however, he him when he talked, "Well Zoë, I could back up and we could continue this fight, or we could call it a draw. I am curious though, how did you get your knife back?"

Zoë grinned at him even more, "You think I would only carry two knives with me? That would be careless. I actually carry four of them with me, so that I lose one or break one or something unfortunate happens, I have a backup. As for this fight, if you are scared of losing, then we can call it a draw, I suppose."

"Well, I wouldn't lose, but since I don't want to embarrass you in front of the people gathered here, I think we can call it a draw." With that, Percy took a step back and put his swords away.

Zoë returned her knife to its sheath and said, "You couldn't embarrass me in a fight, although I must say, you have gotten better since the last time we did this. Good job separating me from my bow, even if it was a cheap trick."

The two gathered their weapons and walked to the center of the arena. Percy seemed to notice that no one was making any noise, so he looked around at us. He grinned at us and said, "Well, that was our duel, hopefully you enjoyed it."

Once he said that, everyone seemed to realize that the duel was over and all of the demigods along with several gods broke into loud cheers and applause.

I, however, was still curious about something. I Shot my master bolt into the arena to get everyone's attention and then asked Percy, "What about your waterpower's? You said that you would have an unfair advantage if you used them. What exactly is it about them that would allow you to win so easily?"

Percy looked at me and said, "I have complete control over water. I can control any water that is not in a living being, and most water that is in a living being. If the being has strong enough willpower, I cannot control their water, otherwise I can. If I used my waterpower's, I could remove all the water from the air around my opponent, making it hard and painful to breathe. I could also add water to the air to the point that it is hard and painful to breathe. I could add or remove water from the ground to make it crumble or turn mucky as well. There is more I could do with my waterpower's, but that is a secret for later. I also didn't use my earth shaker powers because I didn't want to destroy the arena, but as I showed you with Kampê, my earth shaker powers are quite strong as well. Does that answer your question?"

I looked at him with a little bit of shock, if he could really do what he said he could and more, he was indeed a powerful force. It would probably be safest to kill him before he could cause any problems. The only problem is that if I killed him, most of the gods would turn against me and destroy me. Oh well, I guess for now at least I will let him live. I saw he was expecting me to answer him, "Yes Percy, that answers my question. Thank you for showing us how powerful you are, we are glad to have you as an ally against the coming troubles. Try not to cause any trouble at camp until we have more information on when we should dal with the current threat. For now, I shall be off." I didn't want to reveal too much, because not all the campers were yet aware of the threat and I didn't want to scare them. I flashed myself back up to Olympus. Not long after I arrived, all the other gods arrived as well, except for Artemis and Poseidon. I figured they wanted to talk to Zoë and Percy.

Poseidon POV

Well that was an incredible fight. My son had gotten so much more powerful over the last several years it was rather hard to believe. I was still in shock over what we had seen in the arena. After the fight, most of the gods went back to Olympus, but I wanted to talk with my son. I had missed him these last several years and I wanted to catch up with him, as well as apologize for Daniel. After the gods had left, I saw Percy and Zoë help each other with their wounds. They had some ambrosia and nectar, which healed most of the wounds, except for the arrow wound in Percy's arm and the deep gash in Zoë's side. They helped bandage each other up, and then had a personal moment, probably to make sure the duel didn't cause any hard feelings, I wasn't sure and I wasn't going to interrupt it.

After several minutes, I could see campers were about to go and overrun Percy and Zoë, so to prevent that, I teleported myself down next to them. Right as I got there, I sensed Artemis had done the same thing as I had. I made a motion for the campers to scatter and leave is in peace. They did, probably fearing what would happen if they went against two gods.

I turned to look at my son and had to resist the urge to give him a hug. I wasn't sure how he would react if I did, and I didn't want to anger him. Apparently, he wanted to hug me though, and as soon as he did, I felt an immense joy flow through me and my worries disappear. My son still loved me, and that was all that mattered.

After a minute we broke apart. I looked at Percy, but before I could talk, he did, "Hey dad, it sure has been a while. I'm guessing you want to talk with me, right?" I nodded my head. He smiled at me and said, "Okay, but lets go to the beach. It has been a while since I have walked in the ocean." I smiled at him and teleported the both of us to the beach.

We stood on the beach by the camp and I gazed out at the ocean. There was a lot I wanted to ask Percy, but I wasn't sure where to start. He seemed to sense my discomfort and spoke first, "I suppose you want to know why I ran away, what happened to me, how I met Chaos, why I hid from all of the gods for so long, and all of that stuff."

I sighed, "I would like to know that, but first I want to apologize for Daniel."

He interrupted me, "You don't need to do that. He made his own choices and decisions and you couldn't have prevented what he did. I am curious though, as to why he was never claimed until after the giant war."

He looked at me when he said that and I knew I would have to tell him what had happened. So I did. I explained to him how I had met Daniel's mom when I was drunk at a bar, and then never checked on her to see if she had a child because I was ashamed of my actions. I told him about how I felt bad for ignoring Daniel for his whole life, so when he first came to came it seemed as if I favored him over Percy. I explained my actions and apologized for them and hoped that Percy would forgive me.

When I finished my story, we were both standing knee deep in the ocean, feeling the waves push past us towards the shore. He looked at me and said, "It's okay father. You made your mistakes and you tried your best to correct them. No one can be perfect, we all mess up. Stop feeling guilty for what Daniel did to me, it wasn't your fault." I smiled at him. "Now I will tell you my story. It isn't exactly exciting, but it does have its moments."

He then spent the next several hours telling me about everything that had happened. How he had left camp but couldn't bring himself to hate anyone, so he still helped bring campers here and protect them. He told me about his meeting with Chaos when he gained his increased powers and ability to completely hide from the gods. He told me how over the years he got incredibly lonely and wondered why he even bothered continuing. That part made me feel terrible. I knew it wasn't my fault, but he was my son and he was sad and I wasn't there to help him. He then told me about how Chaos had offered to give him a companion in order to ease his loneliness and allow him to be happy again. He explained to me why he chose Zoë and then told me about everything the two had been through together. When he told me about their relationship, he was blushing, but I was smiling with pride. The two would be great together because they understood each other's pain and would never hurt the other. He concluded his story with the part about Nyx and Gaea and then we fell into a comfortable silence.

It was nice, just standing in my domain with my son by my side. I felt content and happy for the first time in years. I knew there were dangers ahead for us all to face, but for the moment, being with my favorite son was all I needed to be happy.

Artemis POV

After the duel, I wanted to immediately go down and help heal Zoë, but when I looked down, I saw Percy carefully tending to her wounds. I smiled at the sight. I knew Percy was a good man and that if he cared for Zoë, he would never hurt her. I supposed the two could relate well with another after the events of their lives. Although I was sad that my former lieutenant was alive but not with the hunt anymore, I couldn't help but feel glad that she had finally found true happiness. I knew she had loved the hunt, but I also knew that there was a part of her wanted more than that. When she had died and told Percy that he was not like Hercules, I could tell she was the happiest she had been since she had joined the hunt.

After several minutes, the campers were about to crowd around Percy and Zoë, so I flashed down to them and shooed the campers away. I felt Poseidon was next to me and figured he wanted to talk to his son. I looked at Zoë and she smiled at me. I grabbed her shoulder and teleported us into the forest at camp, right next to Zeus's fist. I sat down on the pile of rocks and looked at my former lieutenant.

She bowed her head to me and said, "My Lady, it has been a long time since we last talked. How have you been?"

I wasn't sure what to say. I mean, I wanted to talk to her, but it was hard trying to find the words. I smiled at her and said, "There is no need to bow to me Zoë. You are more powerful that I am now and it is I who should be showing you respect."

Zoë shook her head at me, "No, My Lady. You do not need to show me respect. You saved my life once and gave me a home for 2000 years. You gave me a family I could live with and love and devout myself to until the end of my life. I will always be grateful for what you gave me. I suppose though, you would like to hear about everything that has happened since I died. Right?"

I felt myself smiling at her words. It was nice to hear that she still had so much respect for me even though she didn't answer to me anymore. I looked at her and said, "I would like to hear about what has happened and how you came back to life. First though, I want to say congratulations on getting together with Percy. He is the only male hero I have ever had respect for and who I believe is worthy of having you as a partner."

I could see Zoë blush at that. "Thank you, My Lady. That is most kind of you." She then told me of everything that happened. She told me about living in the sky with the stars. She told me about how she had avoided Hercules. It made me mad that he had tried to get with her in the stars, but hearing how she had scared him off made me smile. She told me about her visit from Chaos and how she had been shown about Percy's life as a demigod. I learned about how she had decided that she would like another chance at life, to protect the Earth along side Percy. It was interesting to learn about how the two had worked together to save demigods and mortals from stray monsters that were causing trouble.

It was an amazing story and I probably wouldn't have believed it if Zoë hadn't been the one telling it to me. She told me about how Percy had been betrayed and left camp. It surprised me that the campers had done what they had, but at the same time, I had never liked Daniel because he was a manipulative boy. I had always assumed that he was the reason why Percy left and hearing the truth confirmed to me just made me hate the boy even more.

Zoë told me about the fight with Kampê and the monsters in Alaska. She then told me about Hyperion being freed from his tree and how she had woken up to Percy staring over her, a worried look on his face. She told me about how the following conversation had progressed their relationship. Next though, she told me about Nyx and all the terrible things that Nyx was doing to her. It made me angry to hear about the hurt she felt due to Nyx's other children, but she told me that Percy always made her feel better and helped her to not give in to the pain.

Once she finished, she asked me about the hunt. I told her about Thalia being the lieutenant and that overall things were going pretty well. There hadn't been any trouble until the news about Nyx had surfaced.

We talked for several hours, and it was nice. We sat in the forest and talked about life and we were happy. Eventually, it got late so I had to leave and return to my hunters. I told Zoë that we would visit camp soon and we could talk again then. She smiled at me and I teleported away.

**So the chapter is done. Hopefully you liked it.**

**So, I know some of you guys have been wondering about whether I would write a sequel to this. The answer to that is maybe, it depends if I get the inspiration or not. On a related note though, I have gotten a general idea for another story to write once I have finished this one. Or maybe, I might try to write two stories at the same time, kinda depends on my motivation level and how long this story ends up being. I don't want to give away too many details of the story I am planning to write next, but I will tell you that is going to be a pertemis story. Whether they end up in a relationship or just as friends, I haven't decided yet.**

**Anyways, that is enough about my next story. I might tell you a little more about it over time, but for now I am focusing on this story.**

**Tell me what you like or dislike in a review or PM. Send me suggestions for the story and any specific POV's you want the same way. Also, just feel free to tell me whatever you want. **

**Where I live, it is the first week of spring and we are getting our first real snow in several years. Fun times.**

**Stay safe, don't drink and drive, don't talk to strangers, and other good advice to keep you safe.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16, in all of its glory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the other books and such that relate to it.**

Annabeth POV

I was not in a good mood. Finally, after nearly six years Percy was back, but instead of apologizing to him and maybe getting back together, he has a new girlfriend who will kill me if I even get close to him. Zoë. Just thinking about her makes me mad. Everything she had said was true, I didn't deserve Percy, but that didn't mean I didn't love him anymore. What really galled me though, was that my own mother told me to stop and let Percy be with Zoë. My own mother. She was supposed to be on my side and help me with my problems, not defending an ex-huntress's love for my ex-boyfriend.

I knew it wasn't smart to let my emotions get out of control; it was just so hard to regain control after what had happened. I tried my best to listen to the rest of the meeting, but it was hard with Zoë right next to Percy and the knowledge that she was my replacement.

When the meeting ended, I walked out of the throne room and walked through Olympus. I had redesigned it after the titan war and the improvements had been finished after the giant war. I walked through the streets and thought about Percy. As much as I wanted him back, I realized that I had indeed messed up horribly. I tried to imagine the pain he must have gone through and found that I couldn't. No wonder he had glared at me and let Zoë attack me. I sighed in defeat. I knew there was nothing I could do to get him back, I just wanted to apologize to him now and hope that at the very least he would stop hating me.

As soon as I got back to camp with the other campers who had been at the meeting, Chiron trotted over and greeted us with a smile on his face. I figured Percy had already made it here and introduced himself.

He smiled at me and said, "Percy said to ask you guys to tell me about the meting. He wanted to go and take a look around camp and talk to old friends and catch up with everything he has missed.

I was about to start telling him about the meeting when Clarisse came running up. She had gone ahead as soon as we got back instead of talking to Chiron. She took a few breaths before speaking, "Percy and Zoë are going to duel in the arena. If you want to see their power, you should come watch. It should be a great fight. I can't wait." She then turned around and ran off to tell others about the fight.

Chiron looked at me ands said, "We con continue this discussion after the fight, for now though, lets get to the arena. You go on ahead, I will inform the gods as this might interest them to see."

I nodded and walked off. When I got to the arena, I saw Percy talking with some kid, I think his name was Zack. It occurred to me that almost all of the kids surrounding Percy were the ones he had saved and sent to camp. I smiled at them and walked into the arena. After several minutes, Percy came in and started warming up.

He wasn't doing any sword exercises; he just stretched and tried to loosen up. I wondered why he was acting so serious about this fight, I had seen how he ad fought Daniel, there was no way that Zoë could stand up to him in a fight. Speaking of Zoë, what was she doing? She was shooting arrows randomly throughout the arena. It made no sense to me.

After several more minutes passed, I saw the most of the gods flash in. Percy took that as his cue to start the duel and walked over to Zoë. They conversed and then walked to the center of the arena. Percy said something about no waterpower's and no killing, and then they began.

The fight was incredible. I had never seen anything like it. The power they both had combined with their speed and skill was incredible. I had been expecting a quick win for Percy, but for a large chunk of the fight, he appeared to be losing. I looked around the arena and saw that no one was moving or making any noise. Not even the gods seemed to be able to fully comprehend the skill and power the two were showing. Finally, after almost half an hour, Percy won the duel.

At least that is what it looked like at first. He made Zoë drop a knife and then pinned her to the wall with his sword at her throat. Except then I looked closely and saw that somehow she had gotten her knife back and had it at Percy's throat. I wasn't sure how she had done it, but it was incredible. After a short conversation, the two separated and sheathed their weapons.

They helped each other with their injuries and announced that the fight was over. All of the gods disappeared except for Poseidon and Artemis. I could see the campers really wanted to talk to Percy and Zoë about he fight, but were a little afraid of angering them. I was about to go down and congratulate them on the fight and apologize to them both when Poseidon and Artemis flashed down in front of them.

I sighed and walked away. I figured they wanted to talk with each other and that I could talk to Percy and maybe Zoë later. I walked to my cabin and lay down on my bunk. I thought about he fight and how much power and skill Percy and Zoë had. It seemed unreal. Even though it was only mid afternoon, I could feel myself falling asleep. I didn't resist it.

Percy POV

After my dad left, I walked back towards the camp. There were so many people I wanted to talk to, I just wasn't sure what I wanted to say to them. I could tell the regretted abandoning me and probably wanted to apologize, but after that would I say? I had already forgiven them, but it's not like I could stay at camp forever or anything. I had a new life. I decided I would just tell them the truth and hope they would understand. As I entered the camp, I saw Zoë walking out from the forest. Figuring she had finished her talk with Artemis, I walked over to her.

"Hey Zoë, how was your talk?"

She smiled at me, "It was nice. Artemis seems to be fine and she has no problems with you. It seems that Thalia has so far been a great lieutenant and the hunt has been going strong. How about you, how was your talk with your father?"

I grinned, "It was nice. He seems to be thrilled that I was back and he explained to me about Daniel. Apparently Daniel was an accident. Poseidon went drinking his problems away and wound up getting a random lady pregnant. I didn't push for the details. Then we just talked about how everything has been these past several years. It was nice talking to him."  
>Zoë looked at me and grabbed my hand, "Come on Percy, I know you are avoiding going back to the camp, but I will drag you there and make you face your old friends." With that, she dragged me towards the dining pavilion.<p>

When we reached it, Clarisse came up and told us that all the immortal campers were in the bighouse and if I we wanted to talk to them, we should go there.

I looked at Clarisse funny, "Why are you delivering messages? Aren't you a daughter of Ares? With you delivering messages and backing down from a fight with me, I'm beginning to think that maybe you're a daughter of Hermes."

She punched me in the arm and glared at me, "Shut up Prissy. I'm only doing this because everyone else is scared of you. Bunch of cowards I say. Whatever though, if you want to come then come, if not, go back to wherever you want." She then walked off towards the bighouse.

I hesitated a little before walking over, I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong, but for some reason the idea of confronting my old friends scared me. I felt Zoë squeeze my hand and I looked over at her.

She gave me a reassuring smile and kissed me. "Come on, lets get this over with Percy." She then dragged me over to the bighouse. I walked alongside her and felt better knowing that she was going to be beside me the whole time.

We got to the bighouse and I took a deep breath before opening the door and walking in. I saw that the immortal campers, minus Annabeth, were all sitting down and looking at me with nervous expressions on.

No one said anything for several minutes. I gave them a reassuring smile and that seemed to ease the tension. They all smiled back before all talking at once.

I heard many of them trying to say hi to me and ask me how I had been, but I also heard a lot of apologizing. After several minutes of this, I started laughing. I don't know why it was so funny, but for some reason, the thought that they were all here and missed me and were sorry for what they had done made me incredibly happy and want to laugh with my joy.

After a while, I calmed down and raised a hand to get them to be quiet. I smiled at them all again and spoke, "It seems you all have a lot to say, but before we begin, I want you all to know that I'm not mad at any of you. I never really was, at first I was incredibly depressed, but I was never angry with you. I also want to say that it is nice seeing you all again, I did miss you guys."

That seemed to make them even happier. Before anyone else could speak, Katie stood up, "Even though you aren't mad at us, we are still sorry for abandoning you. We shouldn't have done it and we regret it. It is nice having you back though." She then walked up to me and gave me a hug.

This pattern continued with the rest of the campers as well. First Katie, and then Travis, Connor, Will, everyone else came and gave me a hug as well, even Clarisse did. After that, I told them a little more about what I had been doing the previous six years and then they told me about how camp had been.

After the conversation had ended, the campers left and Chiron came in. He looked at me and said, "So Nyx is trying to rise and she is working with Gaea and her children to do so. What exactly can you tell me about this threat?"

I turned to Zoë since she knew more about Nyx than I did and she spoke, "Well, it means that night is dangerous outside of the protection of the gods. If anyone leaves the camp at night, Nyx will know and could easily send her children to fight them and destroy them. That is why we are staying here. Even though we are hidden from the gods unless we want to be noticed, the night is everywhere and can se everything within it allowing Nyx to know where we are and torment us or try to kill us."

Chiron sighed, "I figured it would be bad, but if you two are scared to be out at night, then the threat truly is a dangerous one. I heard the plan, but how do well do you think it will work? You know how we were barely able to defeat the titans and giants separately, now that they are together and combined with Nyx's children, how will we fare?"

I sighed and looked at Chiron, "I don't know. There is still time before the threat becomes fully realized and ready to strike, so until then we will help with training campers, but even so, it will still be a hard battle. Zoë and myself will handle Gaea, but that leaves the titans and giants for the campers and gods. I will do my best to make sure that everyone is ready, but there will be losses, no doubt. Hopefully we can win with minimal casualties, but against such an enemy, even winning will be a miracle."

Chiron looked at me gravely and seemed to be thinking about something. After several moments he spoke, "Do you remember the true details of the giant war?"

I knew what he was talking about. The giant war we had won, but not alone. We had the help of the roman camp. The problem was that of the seven members of the prophecy, only Jason and Frank had died. The romans believed that us greeks were trying to weaken them and attack them, so to prevent conflict, the gods had worked wonders with the mist afterwards to separate the two camps again. After meeting Chaos, the effect of the mist had worn off of me and my memories of what had really happened returned.

Chiron was asking me about whether the romans would be brought into this fight. I thought about it before responding, "Yes I remember, Chaos removed the mists effect from me. I believe the gods will try to bring the romans into this. If there ends up being two different fronts for this war, then they will definitely be brought in. They will try to keep the two camps separate though, because if we meet up and everyone's memories return, then war between demigods will break out. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but if it does we will be doomed. My guess is that one of the things the gods are discussing is what to do with the romans. They have more fighters, but fewer actual demigods among them. If I had to guess, I would say that the romans will be used to deal with the larger forces of monsters and weaker giants and titans that lead them while we are sent to deal with the more powerful titans and giants who are trying to do the real damage."

Chiron seemed to ponder the idea before speaking again, "I suppose that makes sense. Against large armies, the romans would do well while us greeks do better against small groups as we fight in smaller groups ourselves. Anyways, that is enough discussion of war for today. For now, it is almost dinnertime so you should get ready for dinner and then head to the pavilion. Your room is on the second floor. It is the only open door, so you can't miss it." With that, he walked out of the bighouse.

I turned to Zoë and smiled at her, "Well, let's get ready to eat." She smiled back and we walked over to the pavilion for dinner. As soon as we entered, the conch sounded announcing the beginning of dinner. I was wondering I should sit when I looked up and saw that Chiron had two seats open next to him. I smiled at him and Zoë and I took our seats.

Dionysus didn't show up for dinner. I figured he was with the other gods discussing everything that had happened today and what they were going to do about it. During the meal, I noticed Annabeth look up at me several times.

I sighed and turned to Zoë, "Zoë, I need to talk to Annabeth after dinner. If you want to come with me you can, but I feel like she should be given a chance to talk to me before I shut her out entirely."

Zoë glared at me a little before responding, "Fine. Talk to her. I don't care, but be careful. She is a daughter of Athena and therefore she has probably got plenty of plans thought up for any situation. Be careful. I know you don't hate her, but you shouldn't trust her either. She hurt you once, she could do it again."

I looked at her and spoke, "Yeah, I know. But I can't help who I am. And don't worry, nothing she says or does will get between you and me. I promise."

Once dinner ended, I walked out of the pavilion and waited for Annabeth. As soon as she came out I spoke, "Annabeth, we need to talk."

She jumped when I spoke and then looked at me, "Um, I don't know, it's time for campfire right now, maybe tomorrow sometime will work better." She then tried to walk away.

I grabbed her arm and made her look at me. "Annabeth, I'm not mad at you for what you did. I forgave you a long time ago. What I need to say though is that I will never feel the same way about you again. I don't mind be friends with

You, but after you broke my trust so badly, I will always have a little bit of caution around you. I also want you to know that if you try to interfere with me and Zoë, I will not tolerate it."

She looked at me and said, "Percy, I really am sorry about what I did and I know nothing I do will ever get you to fully trust me again. When I first saw you with Zoë, I was jealous and mad, but after cooling down for a while and thinking about it I realized that as long as you are happy I won't do anything. If we could be friends again, that would be all right with me. Now, it is time for campfire so I need to go." She gave me a small smile and ran off.

I sighed and walked to the amphitheater. I saw Zoë and sat down next to her. When Chiron announced once more that I was back, the flames turned a bright orange and shot 30 feet in the air while everyone cheered again. I smiled that so many people cared for me.

At the campfire, they sung the songs that I hadn't realized I had missed. It was relaxing and fun. Even Zoë got into it a little and sang along.

At the end of the campfire, Chiron pounded his hooves to get everyone's attention before making a final announcement, "Starting tomorrow, Percy and Zoë will be helping to train you all in sword fighting and archery. They will also teach you about the enemies we are facing since they know about them quite well. Now, off to bed and sleep well. Do not under any circumstances leave the boundaries of the camp during the night. I only add that warning because if you do leave, Nyx will find you. Now, good night."

I sighed, it seemed Chiron still wasn't very good at making speeches. Oh well. I grabbed Zoë's hand and we took the long route to get back to the bighouse. We walked along the edge of the forest in silence, just enjoying each other's company.

After several minutes, I turned to Zoë and spoke, "Thanks Zoë."

She looked at me, "What for? I didn't really do anything."

"Well, just having you near me helped give me the courage to talk to all the campers again. So thanks."

She just smiled at me and gave me a kiss, "I told you I would always be with you. So don't worry, I will do my best to help you feel comfortable."

I then gave her a hug and kissed her. She kissed me back. My arms were around her waist while she had her arms around my neck. I pulled her closer to me and began rubbing her back as well. I could feel her push up against me and wrap one of her hands in my hair. Our kiss deepened and it was amazing. After several minutes, we broke apart gasping for air.

I smiled at her again and said thanks. She just grinned and punched my arm, "Any time. Besides, that was fun. We should do that more often."

I grinned and gave her a quick kiss, "Okay then. We will do that more. For now though, we should get some sleep.

We walked to the bighouse and climbed in bed. I wrapped my arms around her waist and fell asleep almost instantly.

**Finished. That was an interesting chapter. Hopefully you all liked it, if not, oh well. Let me know what to do better in a review.**

**Just so you all know, I am on spring break right now, so I have a little more time, but I am also spending more time hanging out with people. Also, on Thursday I leave to go camping and won't be back until Sunday. What I am saying is that I might update another three chapters before I leave, but I also might not update again until next week. Hopefully I can get at least another chapter done before I leave, but I'm not sure.**

**Also, for those who care, I did start a second story. It is called Love for the Loveless and will end up being a Pertemis story. If you want to read it, feel free.**

**For those who wish to be awesome and let me know how I can improve my story, or who want to tell me what they think of my story, or who want to request specific POV's, let me know in a review or PM. I do take into account what you guys tell me.**

**Thanks for reading.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17. Well, I must say this story is making faster progress than I had thought it would. Coolio.**

**Well, as you have probably realized, most of my commentary goes in the authors note at the bottom, so onto the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the related works. **

Zoë POV

I woke up the next morning with Percy's arms around me. It was nice and made me feel safe. In fact, all of the problems the world was facing seemed to go away as I lay there with his arms around me. It was as if I had no care in the world and everything was fine.

Reluctantly, I shifted his arms so that I could get up. One of the nice things about being in some form of civilization is that when you get up, it is really easy to get cleaned up and ready for the day. I walked into he bathroom and took a hot shower. As the water flowed over me, I thought about what was going to happen here at camp and in the future.

Percy had said we probably have about a year until the war, so in theory we had time. However, after living for several thousand years, I understood that as much time as one year gave us, it could sloe pass by quickly. There was also no telling what our enemies would do to form armies. During the titan war the titans had recruited demigods and hired some other mortals to help with their work. I hadn't been around for the giant war, but I had heard that there were very few demigods among the enemies then because the Olympians had been a little nicer top them.

I already knew about Nyx's children who were fighting us, but I really didn't know too much about Gaea's children. I thought about how much danger we were really in. We were facing one primordial while another one was providing energy and plotting in the background. It was a truly frightening thought.

After a while, I got out of the shower and got dressed. I walked back into our room and saw that Percy was still asleep. That was surprising as he was not normally much of a late sleeper. I didn't want to wake him up, but I did want to talk to him about the training we were supposed to lead for the campers. I walked over to the bed and looked at him, trying to decide how I should wake him up.

I was going to just push him out of bed and onto the floor, but I made the mistake of looking at his sleeping face. He looked so peaceful and handsome. It was incredibly captivating and I found myself almost mesmerized by it. I cursed myself for this. I mean I really liked him a lot, but swooning over him was just not the kind of thing I ever imagined I would do. I was supposed to be a man-hating huntress, and although I had fallen in love with t Percy, catching myself staring at him and being distracted by him like this was rather surprising.

Before I realized what I was doing, I leaned over and kissed him. After several seconds, I felt him stirring and then felt him start kissing me back. I then pushed him off the bed and smirked at his surprised expression. "Good morning Percy. Sleep well?"

He groaned and then smiled at me, "Yeah, I slept pretty well. I thought I was waking up pretty well too until I was shoved onto the floor. Thanks for that, by the way. I will get you back for that."  
>I grinned and offered him my hand to help him get up. He took it and as I pulled him up I said, "Well, I didn't want to wake you up, but yesterday I remember hearing something about us training the campers. What exactly does that entail? I mean there are only two of us and almost 200 of them."<p>

He smiled at me, "Don't worry. The campers already have a schedule for their daily activities; we will just be taking over some of them. I will work with them on sword fighting in the arena while you run archery. Then, we can work together to teach them general combat stuff during their free time if they want to learn."

I grinned, "I suppose that should work. Also, seeing as there is a nice archery setup here, I think I might just force you to learn how to use a bow." I laughed at his expression. His face was pale and his eyes were afraid. It was rather funny. I had tried teaching him archery before, but he was the worst shot I had ever seen. Somehow, every time I tried to teach him he was worse than the previous time.

He glared at me and said, "How about not. That would not end well. We are trying to train the campers, not have me kill them with stray arrows."

I smiled playfully at him, "If you say so, but still, I think I will force you to give it a shot."

He sighed, "Fine. Now, lets go down for breakfast and get ready for the day."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, "First though, you should get dressed."

He blushed when he realized he was still wearing sweatpants and an old shirt. "Yeah, right. Almost forgot about that." He then grabbed some clothes and walked into the bathroom.

I turned around and walked out of our room and headed towards the dining pavilion. When I stepped out of the bighouse, I was met with a cool morning. There was no wind and the grass was dewy. I inhaled deeply and set off on a little walk around the camp. Not many people were up yet, and no one paid me any heed. A few people glanced at me, but they all quickly returned to whatever they had been doing. I wondered what they were thinking. They probably knew that I had died before, so seeing me alive must have been strange. I did my best to ignore the campers as I walked through camp.

As a huntress, I had never really liked the campers. Now that I was in the camp as a Guardian of Earth and not a huntress, I found that I didn't hold to my old biases and could potentially get along all right here, at least for a while. As I walked past the Hades cabin, I felt a presence appear by me. I turned my head and saw Nico walking out of the shadows.

He looked up and seemed to notice me for the first time, "Oh. Sorry Zoë, I didn't see you there. Good morning."

I smiled at him. Percy had told me that Nico was the only person who had been there for him until I had come back to life. "Hey Nico. Good morning to you to. What brings you to camp? I was under the impression you lived in the underworld with your father."

He grinned at me, "Well, normally I do, but now that Daniel has ben dealt with and Percy is here, I find myself actually wanting to hang out here for a little bit. Also, I saw how you strong you and Percy are, so if you guys really are training campers, I want to be around as well."

"I suppose that makes sense. I'm not real excited about teaching campers, but I figure it probably is a good idea, so I will at least try to do it. If you are looking for Percy, he was still in the bighouse getting ready when I left so you can probably find him there."

I was about to walk away, but Nico still had a few things to say, "Thanks. I was actually hoping to run into him. As for teaching, I'm sure you will do a fine job. If the campers get to obnoxious, shoot them a few times to get them under control. Also, thanks for helping Percy out of his depression. He always talked me a few times a year, and until you showed up, he seemed more depressed every time. I'm glad you came back into his life."

I smiled, "Thanks Nico. I will see you later." I then continued walking towards the dining pavilion.

Not long after I reached the pavilion, the conch sounded signaling breakfast. I walked up to the main table and took my seat. I sat and watched as campers strolled in. Many of them looked nervous and a little panicky. I couldn't blame them though, especially after Chiron's speech the night before. Several minutes after the campers had arrived, I saw Percy and Nico stroll in. They were both smiling and talking and having a good time.

Once they entered, many of the campers turned to look at the late arrivals. Percy just smiled sheepishly and walked up to sit next to me while Nico vanished into the shadows, reappearing moments later at his table. I smiled at Percy before scolding him, "Tsk tsk Percy, you are late."

He just smiled at me, "Sorry about that. As I was leaving the bighouse to head over here, I ran into Nico and we got talking and completely missed the conch sounding. Anyways, you ready to train the campers in archery?"

I nodded my head, "I suppose. I mean, how bad could it be?"

Percy just laughed, "You would be surprised Zoë, you really would be."

I smirked, "Yeah, well, not everyone is as bad at archery as you are, so it probably won't be that bad."

He pouted but didn't respond. Instead, he dug into his breakfast, and like normal, I was amazed at just how quickly he could eat, and how much he could eat.

After breakfast, I headed over to the archery range in order to help the campers out with their shooting. Well, the campers weren't _horrible _or anything, but they weren't very good either. They mostly had horrible posture and somehow managed to get the arrow to hit the target. The Apollo kids were actually good compared to them. As a huntress, I had always wondered why people thought the Apollo campers were good with a bow, now I understood. It wasn't that they were amazing; it was just that the campers were not good.

So I spent my lessons showing campers the proper posture and positioning to shoot a bow accurately and effectively. By the end of each lesson, there was some improvement. People were beginning to get the hang of holding a bow properly and could usually get close to the bull's-eye. Then the next lesson would start and I would have to start all over again. I hoped Percy was having more fun than I was, but if they were as bad with a sword as they were with a bow, then I doubted he was.

After teaching three classes, the conch sounded for lunch and I made my way back to the dining pavilion. As I took my seat, I saw Percy walk in with a frustrated look on his face. I sighed, figuring he hadn't had much fun with the lessons.

He took his seat and I spoke, "Having fun with your lessons?"

He groaned and I would have laughed if I hadn't been having so much trouble with my classes. "I guess. Actually, no. Not at all. I never realized it was possible people to be so bad with a sword. I mean, it isn't _that_ hard hold it properly and stand properly. Is it really so hard to believe that there is more to sword fighting than just swinging a sword around and trying to block your opponent?"

I laughed quietly, "Well, in fairness, that IS what you do when you sword fight. You block your opponent and swing your sword. But I know how you feel. The campers might not be as bad as you at archery, but they aren't exactly skilled in it either. I hope they improve quickly because if they don't I might just go crazy."

Chiron POV

I listened to Percy and Zoë talk about their classes they were teaching and I felt a mixture of emotions. I was glad that the campers were learning from true experts at fighting, but it also made me feel guilty and wish I could be a better teacher. I knew it wasn't my fault, what with there only being one of me and nearly 200 campers, but I was responsible for them and needed to do better. I wished that we had more staff at camp, but instead of having proper instructors, we only had the cabin councilors and immortal campers. They were good, but not all of them were good at teaching.

I found myself hoping that even after our current problems were resolved, assuming we were still around afterwards, that Percy and Zoë would stay at camp more and help train campers. If they did, more of them would live longer and there would be fewer tragic deaths to deal with.

I enjoyed teaching generations of hero's, but having to watch them die, and often die young, was really painful. I promised myself that after the war I would ask Percy to stay at camp sometimes to help teach the campers.

Percy POV

After lunch, I had five more classes to teach. I didn't mind teaching the campers, in fact it was kind of fun, but after training with Zoë for such a long time and fighting monsters such as Kampê and Hyperion, training campers was a completely different. The campers were good enough to hold their own against a few lesser monsters, or maybe a hellhound, but against powerful enemies, they would be horribly overmatched.

I promised to do my best training the campers. After personally saving several of them and sending them here, it would be really sad if they died because they weren't getting good enough training. I began to understand how Chiron must feel. As nice as it is training and saving heroes, knowing that they could easily die at a young age was hard. I hoped that after this ordeal with Nyx and Gaea was over, assuming we won, that Chaos would allow me to spend some time at camp occasionally so I could help train the campers.

I was in the middle of a lesson when my senses started acting up. I could feel trouble somewhere. At first I was surprised by it, I figured Chaos wanted me to stay at camp in order to be safe, but then I realized that during the daytime, I could leave camp safely and do my original work of saving young demigods and mortals from the wrath of monsters.

Luckily for me, Nico was in this class so I called him over. "Hey Nico, I need to go for a little bit. I have to go save someone. I was hoping you could teach the class while I am gone."

Nico looked at me for a few seconds before responding, "Sure I can, but I'm not as good a teacher or sword fighter as you so I'm not sure how well I will do. And how do you know you need to go save someone right now? This is the middle of a class and I didn't see anyone try to communicate with you."  
>I smiled at him, "Nico, you will do fine. You are probably the best sword fighter at this camp. If you don't want to teach, just have them pair up and give people pointers as you see fit. As for how I know I need to save someone, Chaos gave me a danger or trouble sense or something like that. I don't fully understand it, but every now and then it acts up and points me towards trouble. It led me to Kampê and it led me to Hyperion. It also led me to the demigods I saved and sent to camp."<br>"That's pretty cool," Nico told me, "it sounds like a helpful sense you got there. Sure, I will lead the class. You go save some poor shmuck and get back quickly. Are you going to go take Zoë as well, because if so I think Chiron could teach archery and he was at the bighouse last time I saw him."

"Thanks Nico," I said, "I think I will let Zoë stay though. This doesn't feel like a super powerful enemy that I should need help with and the campers need her training. It would be best if only I went. I should be back soon."

With that, I walked out of the arena, using my senses to try and pinpoint a location. After a few seconds I narrowed in on a location and teleported myself away. I reappeared down in Miami in a dark alleyway hidden from view. I reached out with my senses, making sure no powerful being were around, and then walked out of the alleyway.

I turned down the street and began walking. I knew I was close, I just needed to find the trouble. After walking a few blocks, I heard the sounds of a small struggle and decided to take a look. I turned down a small side street that was all but abandoned and saw several dracaenas binding a small girl. My senses told me demigod, but she was so young I had a hard time believing that; normally monsters left demigods alone until they were much older. However, I then saw her face and got a funny idea. She had sea green eyes like me and long black hair. I knew that after defeating Kronos the big three had ended their oath to not have children and this girl was young enough to have been born since then. I wondered if this was my half-sister.

I drew my swords and immediately cut down the dracaenas. I probably should have kept one of them alive to try and get information, but the thought that they were attacking my sister made me angry and I attacked without really thinking things through.

I cut the ropes that tied bound her arms and I removed the gag from her mouth. I smiled at her and said, "Hello, my name is Percy, may I ask who you are and how old you are?"

The girl looked at me with wide eyes before speaking, "Um, my name is Miranda and I am five years old. Thanks for saving me, but what is going on? What were those things that attacked me and how did you find me? Where did your sword go? Why do you look like me, are you my brother?"

I raised my hand to quiet her. She had been talking faster and louder with every question. I smiled at her and answered, "If you want to know what is going on, you are going to have to come to camp with me. I will explain everything to you. Also, I am not your brother, but I might be your half-brother. We should go now though because there might be more monsters around."

I held out my hand to her and she reached out tentatively before taking it. I then told her to hold on and teleported us back to camp in front of the bighouse. As soon as I appeared, Chiron came out in his wheelchair form. He saw that I was with a new camper and smiled.

He wheeled himself over to us and said, "Percy, I didn't know you had left to go get someone, but welcome back. Who is this young lady you have brought?"

I smiled at him, "I wasn't planning on leaving, but I got a sense that someone was in trouble and needed to be saved, so I left the class to Nico and went to save someone. I teleported to Miami and after walking for a little bit I found a lovely young lady named Miranda being bound and gagged by several dracaenas. Naturally, I saved her and brought her here."

Miranda appeared completely shocked by the sudden change of location. I couldn't really blame her; she was only five and had just had her first monster attack and then been teleported by some mysterious stranger to a completely different location. She was probably a little overwhelmed.

I looked at her and smiled before looking at Chiron again, "Also, I think she might be my half-sister. Without the oath restricting him Poseidon could have easily had more kids and she is young enough to be one."

Just as I finished talking, a glowing symbol appeared above her head, confirming my suspicions. I got a huge grin on my face and gave her a massive hug. That broke her out of her little trance and she began questioning me again. "What are you doing? Why are you hugging me? Where are we and what is going on here? Will someone please explain to me what is happening?"

I put her down and smiled at her, "Miranda, your father is Poseidon. That makes you my half-sister."

She looked at me confused, "What? Who is Poseidon? And what do you mean half-sister? Are we really related? I am so confused right now."

I laughed, "I remember when I first found out about all this. I would love to explain everything to you, but Chiron ahs more experience at that and I have a class to go teach. I'm going to leave you here with Chiron for now, but after dinner I will show you around and talk to you more if you want."

I gave her another hug and then walked back towards the arena. Behind me I could hear Miranda begin questioning Chiron and demanding he explain everything. I heard him sigh at her nonstop questions while I chuckled to myself. It was pretty cool finding out I had another sibling. I could also tell from our brief conversation that she was a much better person than Daniel was. I was looking forward to the evening even more now.

I got back to the arena and saw a new class was just about to start. Nico was standing in front of everyone looking incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. I laughed at his face and walked in, "Hey Nico, I'm back so you can go back to your lessons if you want."

He saw me and sighed in relief before smiling at me, "So, Percy, how was your little mission? Was it successful?"

I grinned at him, "Yes it was. I rescued a five-year-old daughter of Poseidon. I learned I have another sibling, and this one seems way better than Daniel."

Nico grinned at me and patted me on the back, "Congratulations Percy. That sounds pretty cool. Now, I have to get back to my lessons so I will talk to you later.

After I was done teaching all the campers, the conch sounded for dinner. I walked to the pavilion and took my seat between Zoë and Chiron. I looked towards the campers and saw Miranda sitting at the Poseidon table. Daniel was giving her a funny look, but he wasn't doing anything to her so I let it be.

Zoë gave me a harsh look, "Did you go on a mission without me?"  
>I smiled sheepishly, "Maybe…"<p>

She punched me in the arm, "Gah, you got to take a break from teaching the campers and left me to suffer. Not fair Percy, not fair at all."

I smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I just figured the campers could use your teaching so I didn't get you first. I could tell it was going to be a quick mission also without any real danger so I didn't think I was going to need any help."

She sighed, "Fine. But if you go out again without me I'm going to beat you up, got that? Also, you owe me since you left me behind this time."

"Yeah, yeah, I got that. Anyways, as I'm sure you figured out, the mission was to save my half-sister, so I'm pretty pumped to have a new sibling."  
>Zoë smiled at me, "That's cool. After dinner you better introduce me to her."<p>

I nodded, "Okay, I will do that. I'm planning on taking her down to the beach and showing her some of the cool things at camp. You should come as well, it will be fun."

As dinner was about to end, I grabbed Zoë and walked over to the Poseidon table. I sat down across from Miranda and said hi, "Hey Miranda, how was your day?"

She looked up at me and smiled, "It was crazy. I still can't believe the gods are real, I mean I had heard some stories about them and I saw that Disney movie about Hercules, but I had no clue that it was all real!"

At the mention of Hercules, I felt Zoë stiffen up. I sighed, "Yes all the Greek gods are real. But not all the myths are true or tell the whole story. Take that movie about Hercules you saw. It was probably an entertaining movie, but it wasn't really historically accurate. It also made Hercules appear to be a great guy even though he wasn't."

Miranda frowned at me, "What do you mean by that? How was Hercules not a great guy, isn't he supposed to be the greatest hero to ever live?"

I shook my head, "Well, he was an incredibly strong hero and he did some amazing things, but he was not a very nice guy. He had a huge ego and tried to steal the spotlight from others. He took all the credit for his victories without even mentioning the help he got from others. He betrayed those who had helped him achieve his goals. As for whether he was the greatest hero of all time, that is probably a debatable topic. Just because he was a mean person doesn't mean he wasn't a great hero and he certainly accomplished some impressive tasks."

I was going to say more but Zoë interrupted me, "Oh shut up Percy. Hercules was a scumbag and a terrible hero. Everyone knows that you are the greatest hero of all time."

I blushed and was going to argue with her when I remembered I hadn't introduced her to Miranda yet. "Oh, Zoë, this is Miranda, my new half-sister. Miranda, this is Zoë, my, uh, girlfriend I guess you could say."

Miranda looked at me, and then at Zoë before talking, "Hi Zoë. You're really pretty. Also, what do you mean by saying that Percy is the greatest hero of all time? What did he do?"

Zoë blushed at the compliment and then grinned. I could tell she was about to talk about everything I had done, just so she could embarrass me. Probably to get back at me for leaving her at camp while I went on my mission. I groaned and Zoë's smile got even wider. "Well, your brother has done all sorts of crazy things. When he was twelve he prevented a war between the gods. When he was thirteen he recovered the Golden Fleece and revived Thalia, a daughter of Zeus. That winter he saved Lady Artemis and helped me to die in peace."

Zoë was about to continue but Miranda interrupted her, "WHAT! What do you mean he helped you to die in peace, you're right here in front of me and you appear to be alive."

Zoë smiled, "That is a story for another time. Anyways, the following summer he helped fight a battle and repel Kronos's invasion. The following year he Defeated Kronos and sent the titan lord back to Tartarus. Then he went and defeated Gaea's other children, the giants and put Gaea back to sleep."

She finished talking and Miranda stared at me, "I don't know what most of that means, but it sounded impressive. You are the coolest brother ever."

I blushed and was about to respond, but Zoë beat me to it, "Then again, most of that was probably just luck. Your brother didn't really get strong until I started training him."

I groaned and Miranda laughed. Wanting to change the subject, I said, "Hey Miranda, have you been to the beach yet?"

She shook her head, "No, I haven't. Is there a beach here? I LOVE the beach!"

I laughed at her enthusiasm, "Yes there is a beach here. It is quite nice actually. If you want, I can take you there."

She jumped up and grabbed my arm, trying to drag me out of the pavilion, "Hurry up Percy, take me to the beach already."

Zoë laughed as I stood up and headed towards the beach with Miranda. As soon as we got to the beach, Miranda ran straight up to the ocean. She quickly took her shoes off and waded in up to her knees. I smiled at her enthusiasm and followed her in. Zoë just stood back and watched.

As soon as I got next to Miranda, I felt a presence. I turned my head and wasn't the least bit surprised to see my father standing next to me in the ocean. I smiled at him and turned to Miranda, "Hey Miranda, want to meet your father?"

She looked at me and was about to respond when she saw Poseidon next to me. She got a huge smile on her face and tackled him in a hug.

Poseidon laughed and hugged her back, "Hey Miranda, how is my lovely daughter doing?"

She grinned at him, "Are you really my father? Are you really a god? Cuz if so, that is awesome!"

Poseidon smiled her, "Yes, I am your father. I wish I could have seen you before, but there are rules in place, limiting the contact us gods can have with their children. Thanks to your brother though, we can now visit them on occasion. It is better than it used to be, but I still wish I could visit more." He then turned to look at me, "Hello Percy, I wanted to thank you for saving my precious daughter here. She truly is a little angel."

I smiled at him, "It was no problem saving her. I would have saved her regardless of her parent, but as soon as I saw her face I realized that she was my little sister. That just made me all the more angry with the monsters that were trying to take her. Anyways, it is nice seeing you again."

He smiled at me and I could see his eyes sparkling with happiness. "It is nice seeing you as well. After you disappeared, I wondered if I would ever see you again, now that you are back and I have my precious daughter here as well, I am happier than I have been in years."

Miranda turned to look at me, "What does daddy mean that you disappeared? What happened?"  
>I was going to answer, but Poseidon beat me to it, "Some unfortunate things happened in his life. That other brother of yours, Daniel, did some awful things to Percy and even I wronged him. However, the problems of the past have been dealt with and we are all trying our hardest to move on."<p>

Miranda looked like she wasn't sure what to say, which surprised me because she seemed like she was always able to talk. She looked at me with sad eyes, but I just smiled at her, "Don't worry about it. My life is a long and sad story, although this past year has been rather nice and hopefully in the future I can keep a hold of my happiness. "

She smiled at me and gave me a hug, "Don't worry Percy, I'm sure you will have a happy life."

I smiled at her and rubbed her back. I looked over at my father and saw he was looking back at Zoë.

He grinned at her and said, "Hello Zoë. I must say it is a pleasure to meet you. I want to thank you for helping Percy out in his time of need and helping him find happiness again."

Zoë smiled back, "It was no problem Lord Poseidon. After everything he did for me and the world, it was the least I could do. Anyways, I think we both helped each other find happiness again. Besides," she said, turning to smirk at me, "since he had me brought back to life to work with him, I figured if I was going to be stuck with him I might as well try to enjoy it."

I glared at her and laughed, "Whatever you say Zoë, but I didn't have you brought back to life, I merely gave you the option. You are the one that took the opportunity."

Miranda was once again looking at me with a confused face, "What is she talking about? You brought her back to life? What?"

I turned and grinned at her, "Some day, when you are older, I will tell you my life story. For now though, all you need to know is that Zoë died and came back to life. Now she works with me to help save people and together we are a very happy couple."

Poseidon turned to look at me, "Percy, I have to go now, I have my own responsibilities to attend to. I know you will keep a close eye on your sister and protect her, so I thank you for that. Now, I am off to my palace."

He gave me a hug and turned to Miranda, "Miranda, I know you are young, but the life of a demigod is dangerous. I had Tyson, one of your Cyclopes half-brothers, make this for you." He handed her a bracelet. When he pushed a button on it, it turned into a beautiful celestial bronze knife. He then tapped the tip of it with his finger and it turned back into a bracelet. "Use this for protection against enemies. When you are older, if you want a different weapon, just let me know and I can have it changed. For now though, a knife is the only weapon small enough for you to use. Now, I have to return to my palace, so have fun at camp and keep an eye on your brother, he is quite the trouble maker." He then hugged her and disappeared into the ocean.

I turned to Miranda and Zoë, "Well, it is getting late. We probably missed the campfire, so we should head to bed. If Daniel tries to give you any trouble, let me know and I will take care of him. For now though, good night and sleep well."

We then walked back to camp and went our separate ways. Miranda headed towards the Poseidon cabin while Zoë and I walked to the bighouse. Zoë turned to me, "Well, that was nice. I always thought Poseidon was one of the nicer Olympians and your sister seems to be a good girl. Maybe when she is older she can join the hunters."

She grinned at me and I laughed, "Well, if she wants to join, I won't stop her, but as of now, I don't know why she would join. I mean she hasn't had any bad experiences with boys, so unless that becomes a problem she probably won't join."

Zoë grinned at me, "Well, Lady Artemis can be pretty convincing of she wants to recruit someone, so there is no telling what might happen. For now though, you are right. Now lets hurry up and go to bed. I'm tired and I want to get some sleep before I have to try and train the campers some more."

I grabbed her hand and dragged her up to our room in the bighouse. We got ready for bed and sat down. Zoë was about to lie down when I kissed her. At first she was surprised, but then she seemed to smile and kissed me back. It was a wonderful kiss. It deepened and our tongues met. I pulled her closer and we fell down on the bed. Zoë was on top of me and we had our arms around each other. We kissed passionately for several minutes before breaking apart.

She smiled at me, breathing heavily, "Well, that was nice. A little unexpected but nice none the less."

I grinned up at her, "I told you we would do that more often, remember?"

She grinned, "Yes I do remember, and that was even better than the last one. Now however, as much as I wouldn't mind doing more of that, I think it time to sleep." She rolled off of me and cuddled up next to me. I wrapped my arms around her and together we slowly drifted off to sleep.

**Wow. That was a strange chapter.**

**I had hoped to update sooner, but this chapter was one I was having a hard time coming up with ideas for. **

**I won't be able to update for several days because I am leaving in a few hours to go camping and won't be back until Sunday evening. Hopefully while I am gone I can get a few more ideas for this story. I know in general how I want it to end and have the final battles and stuff go, but the parts that I am writing now are giving me a little bit of trouble.**

**Anyways, thank you all for the reviews. They provide me with motivation and some inspiration.**

**I would have finished this yesterday and put it up then, except one of my favorite stories decided to update with a 58 thousand word chapter. Needless to say, I was distracted for a good chunk of time.**

**If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, critiques, or whatever; let me know in a review or PM.**

**I will try to update again by Monday, but it might take until Tuesday to finish the next chapter.**

**If you care at all, this was my longest chapter yet, with the story part being a little over 6000 words. Don't expect too many chapters to be this long. Most of them will probably stick closer to 4000 words.**

**Anyways, that's all for now, so until next time, enjoy.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay, it has been a while, but here is chapter 18.**

**I was planning to update yesterday, I even had all sorts of things planned and fun stuff and sorts of other cool things, but I sat down at my computer and just couldn't find the proper motivation to start. It was a weird feeling.**

**Anyways, that feeling has passed and here is the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.**

Percy POV

The next morning I woke early. The sun wasn't up yet and I could tell the entire camp was still asleep. I briefly considered going back to sleep, but I knew I wouldn't be able to. I turned my head to look at the sleeping form of Zoë. She truly was beautiful. With her dark hair and caramel skin, her peaceful sleeping face and relaxed body; I found myself captivated by the sight of her. Again.

I could feel her arms wrapped around me still, so I carefully moved them, making sure I didn't disturb her sleep. I took one last look at her sleeping face and then got dressed and walked outside.

No one was up yet, and if I had been a camper still, the harpies would have eaten me for breaking curfew, but I wanted to take a walk to relax, before the pressure and stress was mounted on me again for the day. I walked to the forest and then turned towards the beach. I got to the beach and walked along the shoreline. The camp covered several miles of the beach, so I wasn't in danger of leaving the borders.

I thought about being at camp again. This time, however, I was a teacher not a student. I was teaching the other demigods how to fight against monsters, how to properly wield a sword, most importantly, how to believe in themselves and their own power. I knew that it was important to rely on others to help you out, but I also knew that if you couldn't help yourself, you wouldn't be able to help protect those who protect you.

For the most part, the campers were not good with a sword. The Ares campers could use them, but they would get too caught up ion the battle and would lose the concentration they needed to be successful. The rest of the campers could barely even hold a sword properly. From the first day of training though, I could tell they wanted to learn, to survive. I promised myself I would give them the best training I could, not so they could help fight the war, but so they could survive with each other once we had won the war. I was determined to win. I hadn't helped save the world twice just so it could be destroyed on the third attempt.

That got me thinking about the number 3. I had been told before it was a powerful number, and I guess it was. Many things seemed to come in threes and I hoped that included end of the world threats. First Kronos, then Gaea, now Nyx. Hopefully after the three, there would be no more, at least not for a long time.

My thoughts then turned to my newfound little sister. Well, half-sister, but still she was my sister. She was five years old and a bundle of energy. I had spent some time with her the night before, but I hadn't really learned anything about her past. I hadn't asked about her mother and she hadn't mentioned her. I wondered if that was because she was overwhelmed with everything that was going on, or if something had happened between her and her mother. I knew most demigods had trouble with their mortal parent; I was lucky in that sense, since my mother was the greatest mortal woman to ever live, but not everyone was so lucky.

I promised myself I would talk to Miranda about her family later today. I also wondered what classes she would take. She was only five years old, so she couldn't exactly use full sized weapons, or do the climbing wall with the lava trying to kill her. She was too young to have to worry about fighting monsters and such in the real world. She was the youngest person at camp as well. There were some people who were seven or eight, but no one except Miranda was any younger than that. I worried about her and whether she would get lonely, with no one else her age to spend time with and everyone else working on monster fighting and other dangerous stuff that she would need to wait a few years to start training for.

I realized I was starting to stress myself out with all of my worrying. It was too early to deal with this stuff, so I turned to ocean and sat down. I gazed across the waters and towards the brightening horizon. I could tell the sun was about to rise over the calm waters of the ocean. With no wind and only a few clouds in the sky, it seemed like it would be a peaceful day. I watched the waves as they formed and broke, and then washed up on the shore. The steady repeating cadence of the ocean always managed to help me calm down and find peace. I leaned back on my hands and cleared my mind, allowing the sounds of the ocean and the early morning wash over me, there was even a light breeze carrying the scent of the ocean to me even more.

I sat back on my hands and watched the sun slowly rise over the ocean and begin its long journey through the sky and then I felt someone sit down next to me.

"It's a beautiful morning, isn't it Percy?" Zoë said.

I turned my head to face her and smiled, "That it is. Relaxing as well, just sitting here and letting the morning wash over you. It helps to put me at peace."

Zoë smiled and leaned back on her hands, "I always preferred watching day turn to night, because at night I could watch the moon. Now however, the night makes me think of my mother and I am finding a new beauty in watching the sun rise and push Nyx away for the day."

I scooted over next to her and put my arm around her shoulder, "Don't worry too much about it. We will do everything we can, and then even more if we need to. I promise we won't let Nyx win, we will lock Gaea in a new prison and make Nyx fall back to sleep. The night will be free of your mother once more and peace will be restored."

Zoë looked at me and gave me a small smile, "Thanks. I can see why you were such an effective leader for the two previous wars, you talk with such confidence and power, it's hard not to believe you."

I grinned, "I guess. The truth is that this is going to be a hard battle and we will be lucky if we win it, but that is how most of these battles go, so I'm just going to do my best to make sure I don't let anyone get hurt. Also, this might be random, but I have been wondering, if both of your parents were immortal, then how come you were mortal?"

Zoë glared at me and then laughed, "Ah, I suppose I can tell you. I was born as a Hesperide. That is where my immortality was. When I was banished and kicked out of the family, I was no longer a Hesperide and lost my immortality."

I nodded and turned back to face the sunrise and watch as the new day was born. Zoë and I leaned against each other, with my arm around her shoulders and her arm around my waist. Her head rested on my shoulder and I leaned my head on top of hers. It was relaxing and peaceful and a great start to the day. Of course, we were interrupted and jerked out of our peaceful morning.

"Percy!" I heard Miranda yell.

I lifted my head and turned towards the voice and saw Miranda walking towards me. I grinned at her, "Good morning Miranda. What are you doing up already? It's not breakfast yet, shouldn't you be in your cabin?"

She walked over and gave me a hug, "Yes, but Daniel was being annoying and saying that you were a bad person and ruined his life so I wanted to leave and get away from him."

I sighed, "Daniel made some terrible mistakes and did some terrible things, all I did was give him a chance to be a better person. That is enough about him though, for now, it's almost breakfast time so you should head to the pavilion and get ready."

She nodded and grabbed my arm, trying to pull me up, "You have to come with me though, I don't want to go alone. There are a lot of other campers and they are big and some of them are mean."

I took my arm from around Zoë and stood up, "Alright, I will take you to the pavilion for breakfast." I then grabbed Zoë's arm and tried to pull her up.

She looked at me and said, "What? You want me to come as well? Oh well, I guess I am hungry." She then stood up and the three of us walked to the pavilion for breakfast.

As we walked towards the pavilion, the conch sounded, signaling breakfast. We walked faster and got there as everyone else was taking their seats. We walked to the Poseidon table and Miranda sat down, I turned to walk to the main table, but she grabbed my arm before I could walk away.

"Where are you going? You're my brother so shouldn't you sit at Poseidon's table as well? And why don't you sleep in his cabin?"

She looked at me with her pleading eyes and I caved. Zoë saw my face and laughed at it, "You are such a softy Percy, but alright, eat breakfast with your sister. I will go and sit with Chiron."

I laughed, "Yeah, yeah, you have fun with that. If you want you can sit here with us though."

She grinned at me but then walked up to the main table and sat by Chiron. I turned back towards the table and sat down next to Miranda. Once again, Daniel was on the opposite end of the table, trying his hardest to stay away from me. He saw me looking his way and tried to glare at me. I glared back and he flinched, turning his head down and scowling into his lap.

I then turned my attention back to Miranda, "Well you see, I am indeed a son of Poseidon, but I am not a camper, I'm a teacher. That means that I have a seat at the main table and can stay in the bighouse. I suppose if you want though, I can eat my meals at the Poseidon table and talk to you."

She gave me a huge smile and said, "Cool! You should do that. You are the coolest brother ever. You should also sleep in the Poseidon cabin though. It is kind of sad being in there alone. Well, Daniel is there, but he doesn't say anything, and when he does talk, he only says mean things."

I gave her an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry about that, but I can't stay in that cabin. I have too many old memories there that I would rather not have to remember. Also, Zoë can't stay there since she isn't a child of Poseidon, so we stay in the bighouse. "

"Oh, okay then." She looked a little sad that I wouldn't stay in the Poseidon cabin, but then she smiled, "Since you are a teacher, will you be teaching me things today?"

I considered her question before answering, "Well, I am the sword fighting teacher and since you are so young, you won't be taking that class, so I won't really be teaching you that. If you want though, I can try to teach you how to use your water powers during the evening some days."

She smiled at me, "Okay, that sounds fun."

"I have a question for you that you don't have to answer if you don't want to," I said. "What about your mother? Isn't she going to be worried about you disappearing suddenly?"

She gave me a sad smile before answering, "Well, I don't really know, but Chiron said he would talk to her about it. He said he would tell her I was at some new year round school or something. He told me I might be able to visit her occasionally, but for now I have to stay at camp for my safety. I hope she's okay though."

I smiled at her, "I'm sure your mother is fine. Poseidon will probably keep her safe from monsters since he tends to be pretty fond of the parents of his children. Well normally anyways," I added, looking over at Daniel. "He did his best to help my mother as much as she would allow him to. He will probably do the same for yours."

"Thanks Percy," she said. She then gave me a hug before returning to her breakfast.

After breakfast, I went to the arena to begin teaching my classes for the day. The morning classes went by pretty quickly. I had to reteach proper hand positioning and technique to people, but they picked up a little quicker this time and began making some progress on fighting technique as well.

At lunch, I sat with Miranda again and talked to her about her day so far. She told me she had spent some time doing arts and crafts stuff before heading to the archery range to learn how to shoot.

I asked her how that went, "So Miranda, how went archery? From what I have been told, Poseidon's children are the worst archers in the world."

She grinned at me, "That's what Zoë told me. So instead of letting me shoot, she made me work on positioning and stance the whole time. She said if I was anything like you I would probably end up shooting myself if I tried to fire an arrow. After a while though, she said my stance and posture and all that stuff was good so she let me shoot. My first shot was almost a bull's-eye," she stated proudly.

I gaped at her. That was crazy, a child of Poseidon and she was also good at archery. I wished I was good at archery. "Good job, I'm proud of you. I can't even hit a target yet…" I mumbled.

She patted me on the shoulder, "It's okay brother, if you want, I can teach you how to shoot."

I grinned at her and we went back to our meals. After lunch, it was time for the afternoon lessons so I went back to the arena to teach classes again. Zoë came over and took Miranda back to teach her more archery. She also poked fun at my terrible archery skills and walked off laughing with Miranda.

The afternoon lessons were going as well as the morning ones. The upside was that during the afternoon lessons, Clarisse was in one class and Nico in another which meant I had a good sword fighter in two of the classes. Nico was better than Clarisse, but that was only because she preferred to use a spear, not a sword. Regardless, it was nice having someone besides myself who was good with sword fighting to help with the class.

Towards the end of my lesson with Nico in the class, I heard the sound of a hunting horn announcing the arrival of the hunters of Artemis. I wondered what they were doing here, since they normally avoided camp as much as possible. I ended the class a little early so I could go and greet the hunters.

As I left the arena, Zoë walked over to me from the archery range, I figured she had had the same idea as me to go and greet the hunters. I figured she also wanted to talk to some of her old friends. Together, we walked towards the bighouse

When we arrived, the hunters immediately stopped talking and stared at Zoë, seeming to be in a trance. Zoë smiled at me, "Go inside and talk to Lady Artemis and Chiron, I want to stay out here and talk to some old friends."

I smiled at her and walked into the bighouse. When I entered, I saw Artemis talking with Chiron about staying at camp for a while. Dionysus was busy playing Pacman in the corner and ignoring the conversation.

Chiron saw me and smiled, "Hello Percy, what are you doing here though? I thought you had sword fighting classes to teach."

"Sorry, Chiron, I ended the lesson early because I wanted to see why the hunters were at camp when they normally tried to avoid it as much as possible." I then turned to Lady Artemis and bowed to her. Since she was one of the Olympians I actually respected, I was willing to show her the proper respect.

She smiled at me, "Hello Perseus. No need to bow. You have done much to help me and the other Olympians, so don't worry about formalities. As for why I am here with the hunters, that has to do with the power of Nyx. I can provide safety to my hunters at night, but Nyx's forces are gaining in strength and it is beginning to get to be too hard to protect all of my huntresses. Although we do not like it, it is necessary for them to stay in a place with stronger boundaries that can repel the forces of the night so we are going to be staying here for some time."

I nodded, "That makes sense. Although it isn't a good thing that the enemies forces are already this strong. The war may upon us earlier than we had anticipated. Regardless, welcome to camp and hopefully you enjoy your stay."

"I doubt we will enjoy it, but hopefully we can avoid a war between my hunters and the campers."

I nodded again, "Yes, that would be nice. Isn't that the reason for the friendly capture the flag game though, to try to relieve the tension between the groups by having the hunters beat up the campers?"

Artemis laughed while Chiron just sighed at that. "It seems you understand, Percy, "Artemis said. "You are right, the game is supposed to help ease the tension, although with my hunters being way more skilled than the campers, it doesn't normally help the campers much."

I gave her a cheeky grin, "Well, this next game will be different. Now that Zoë and I have begun training campers, they might actually put up a fight this time. Heck, we might even manage to pull off a win."

Artemis was about to respond, but Chiron interrupted us, "Well now, lets get back to our earlier discussion, before you two decide to start a duel in the bighouse. That could get ugly. The capture the flag game will be in three days, on Friday. You can try to intimidate each other some other time."

"Good idea Chiron. Percy, we can continue this conversation later." Artemis then turned back to face Chiron, "Okay, so we will be setting up in my cabin. Make sure none of your campers do anything funny or I will turn them into jackalopes." She then turned to face me, "I understand you are teaching a sword fighting class in the arena."

I nodded, "Yes I am. The campers need to improve their skills if they want to be able to help in the upcoming war and have a chance of survival."

"I understand that, however, I will be taking the arena for two hours every afternoon for my hunters to train. That means some of your classes will be getting more crowded and you will have some free time every afternoon."

Great," I sighed, "just what I needed. More people in my classes. Fine, I suppose I can manage, and I understand your need for the arena."

She smiled at me, "Good. Now I have a question for you, where is Zoë?"

"What? Oh, she is outside. She wanted to talk with some of her old friends from the hunt. They were staring at her like she was a ghost, which I suppose I can understand, she did come back from the dead after all."

"Yeah, I told them that she was alive again and Thalia confirmed it. I still think most of them had a hard time believing it though. It is rather hard to believe that she's alive again. When they heard that she was in a relationship though, they were all surprised and a little angry at first. Once I explained to them what I knew about your relationship though, they understood and calmed down. Anyways, I'm going to go get settled in with my hunters, so see you later Perseus." With that, Artemis walked out of the bighouse.

I turned to Chiron and he spoke, "Well, it seems we will be having a few more long term guests at camp, and these ones might cause a little more trouble than you and Zoë."

"Yeah, you got that right. I mean, Lady Artemis and her hunters are cool and all, but they hate boys and Aphrodite children and camp in general. The fact they are going to have stay here until after the war is bound to cause some trouble."

Chiron nodded and then smiled at me, "Well, they hate all boys except for the two of us anyways. Regardless, we are going to have to look out and try to prevent conflict if we don't want fights breaking out."

"Yeah, for some reason they seem to think we might actually be decent males. Anyways, since it seems my teaching schedule is going to change, get me my new schedule as soon as possible so I can try to plan accordingly. Right now I am late for my next class, so I have to get going. See you later Chiron."

With that, I too walked out of the bighouse. When I got outside, I noticed that all the hunters were gone, as well as Zoë. I considered looking for Zoë, but I figured she had gotten back to her classes or was busy with the hunters. I turned and headed back to the arena for my classes.

Zoë POV

I was feeling pretty awkward. Percy had just gone into the bighouse and I was stuck out here with all of the hunters staring at me. Finally, Thalia walked up to me. She smiled at me and gave me a hug, "Welcome back Zoë. Well, back to life anyways, I know you aren't joining the hunt again."

I blushed but thanked her, "Thanks Thalia. Thank you for leading the hunt after I died, they seem to be doing quite well now thanks to you."

That seemed to break the tension and suddenly all of the hunters were trying to hug me. Some of them had tears in their eyes. I was surprised by how much they all seemed to care and by how much they had missed me. It was nice. As much as I loved my old family though, I knew that I was no longer part of the hunt. I had moved on into a new life.

After the hugging, Phoebe spoke up, "So, I hear you got yourself a boyfriend. And not just any boy either, but Perseus Jackson, the hero of Olympus."

I blushed again and tried to respond, "Yeah, but he isn't like other males. He's actually a good guy, so I have no regrets. He treats everyone with respect and is a wonderful man." I then realized what I said and blushed even more.

The hunters started laughing, which just served to make my blush grow an even darker red. I tried to glare at them, but it didn't really work. After a minute or so, they calmed down. Phoebe looked at me, still grinning, and said, "Yeah, we know. He's the only male we can tolerate though. He should treat you well and we are all glad that you have found some more happiness. Anyways, how about you come with us and help us get settled in. We can trade stories and catch up with each other."

I looked over at Thalia, since she was the lieutenant and she nodded at me. "Okay, that sounds like a great idea."

I walked with the hunters back to cabin eight. I knew I had classes I should be teaching, but I figured missing one day wouldn't hurt anyone too badly. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with the hunters and just having a good time. Eventually, the conch sounded signaling dinner. I walked with the hunters to the pavilion and separated from them there.

I walked towards the main table to my seat and looked for Percy at the Poseidon table. He saw me and smiled at me. I grinned back and walked over to him first. "Have a nice afternoon Percy?" I asked.

He smiled, "It was fun, I guess. The campers seem to be getting a little better. I take it you had fun skipping your afternoon lessons to hang out with the hunters?"

I blushed, "Yes actually, it was rather nice. Don't worry though, I won't be skipping my lessons anymore, I know that the campers need my help."

"Okay, sounds good. Anyways, you should sit with us for dinner," he said, gesturing to himself and Miranda.

I smiled, "No thanks. I will hang out with you after dinner. For now though, I'm heading to the main table so I can sit with Chiron and Lady Artemis." With that, I walked to my seat and sat down.

Lady Artemis turned to me, "Why does Percy sit with the Poseidon table while you sit at the main table? Shouldn't he be sitting here as well?"

"He can sit here if he wants to, but his sister there insists that he sit with her at meals."

Artemis looked at the Poseidon table and seemed to just notice the little girl sitting there. She looked at me with a surprised expression, "She seems awfully young to be here at camp already, what happened to her?"

I looked at Miranda and Percy and said, "Percy saved her a day ago. Said she was being bound and taken away by several dracaenas. I don't know the full details since I was busy teaching archery, but the two bonded pretty quickly. She seems to believe that Percy is the coolest brother ever and doesn't like it when he isn't around, so she does whatever she can to try and spend time with him."

Artemis nodded, "That's nice. What do you think about her? Is she a good demigod?"

"I think she is pretty sweet. She is hyper and nice, but she also seems to be quite caring as well. Also, even though she is a daughter of Poseidon, she is pretty good with a bow."

Artemis turned to me and raised an eyebrow, "Oh? That's interesting. Maybe I should recruit her once she gets older. I'm sure she would make a wonderful huntress."

I smiled, "Good luck with that, you're going to have to convince Percy of that one."

"And why is that? Since he is immortal, wouldn't he want his younger sister to be immortal as well?"

"Well, I think he is hoping that she can take Daniel's place as an immortal camper for the Poseidon cabin. I'm not really sure though," I said.

As dinner was winding down, Chiron stood up and stomped his hoof, getting everyone's attention. "Campers, as you know, Lady Artemis and her hunters are visiting right now. They will be staying until after the upcoming war. As is tradition, we will be having a friendly game of capture the flag with them on Friday. Lady Artemis will be playing alone with her hunters while Percy and Zoë will be helping you out. Now, I expect all of you to behave appropriately around the hunters, I will not stand for any rudeness or fights. Punishments will be severe for anyone who causes trouble between the hunters and us. Now, off you go."

As everyone was leaving, Percy walked up to me and Artemis with Miranda at his side. He turned to Artemis and said, "Hello again, Lady Artemis. Miranda wanted to meet you and I couldn't say no to her, so here she is."

He then turned to Miranda, "This is Lady Artemis. She is one of the cool goddesses and she is the goddess of the moon and the hunt, as well as a few other things I can't remember."

I laughed quietly while Artemis tried to suppress her laughter by sighing, "I am also the goddess of the wilderness, childbirth, virginity, and young girls. Really Perseus, you should know the basics by now."

Miranda looked pretty excited from meeting a goddess. She was practically jumping with excitement. Finally, she couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out, "COOL! You're really a goddess. That is awesome! I heard that you hated boys though, so why do you like my brother? Also, my brother said that gods and goddesses aren't allowed to interact with the demigods and mortals very often, so how come you are allowed to travel with so many people?"

Artemis laughed at her enthusiasm, "Well child, as goddess of the hunt, I am given certain privileges over other gods, allowing me to recruit young maidens to travel with me and help me hunt down monsters and other evils."

Percy then interrupted, "This may be a rude question, but I have always been curious, how can you be the goddess of childbirth AND virginity? Aren't those kind of contradictory? I mean if you are going through childbirth, you aren't a virgin, so why are you-"

Artemis cut him off, "Really Perseus? You want to ask that? A god or goddess does not control what their realm of influence and power is. The fact that I wound up with those is almost a coincidence. Part of the childbirth part though, is because I helped in my twin brothers birth the day after I was born. Not that he believes that, but he is an idiot so there is nothing I can do about that."

I was trying not to laugh at the conversation but was finding it harder by the second. Percy saw my face and glared at me. That was all it took and I burst out laughing at his random and rather odd question. Artemis too, seemed to be having a hard time keeping a straight face while poor Miranda didn't seem to be able to follow the conversation that had just taken place.

After a few minutes, we all settled down again. I turned to Percy, "Percy, I'm going to go spend a little more time with the hunters. I will meet you back at the bighouse later, okay?"

He smiled at me, "Sure, that sounds good. I'm going to head to the beach with Miranda and start teaching her a little about her water powers."

Miranda got a huge smile on her face and began jumping up and down with excitement. Percy laughed and walked off with Miranda running in circles around him.

Percy POV

They all thought my question was stupid. I was just curious about something; I can't help it if I'm curious by nature. Anyways, I walked down to the beach with Miranda running all around me in her excitement to learn how to use her powers.

We arrived and walked to the surface of the water. She looked at me and said, "Can you show me some of your powers first? I want to see what you can do with your water powers."

I smiled at her, "Sure I can show you."

I raised my arm towards the ocean and willed the water to rise. Using my power, I controlled the water and made it float in the air. I then formed the massive ball of water into a figure. After a few seconds, floating right in front of Miranda was a ten-foot tall replica of her made out of water. Miranda stared at it with wide eyes and I almost laughed at her expression. I then made the figure move about and fly around. After a minute or so, I let the water fall back into the ocean.

Next, I used more force with less precision control and allowed a massive wall of water to explode out of the ocean. It formed a massive 50-foot tall wave that came hurtling towards us. Miranda stared at it with a little bit of fear. Before it could reach us though, I forced the water to freeze. Freezing ocean water is incredibly hard. Freezing water is hard enough, but salt lowers the freezing point of the water and with the salt in the ocean, it becomes incredibly hard to freeze the water.

Miranda was speechless as she stared at the frozen wave. I decided to do one last little demonstration. I concentrated on the frozen wave, and then proceeded to instantly vaporize it. Once second it was frozen water towering 50 feet above us, the next instant it was a wall of steam, slowly dispersing in all directions.

I looked down at Miranda, "There, that was a small demonstration of my powers. I can do much more than that, but for now, this is what I will be working with you on."

She turned to look at me, "Will I really be able to do all of that? That was incredible!"

I smiled at her, "It took me a long time to be able to do that much with my powers. At first, you will barely be able to do anything with the water, but as you learn to control you powers and they slowly open up and grow, you will be able to do bigger and more impressive things."

For the next couple hours, I tried to teach her how to feel the water and control it. When she stood in the ocean, she was able to form small waves around her, but when she was on shore, she was barely able to move the water at all. I wasn't too surprised though, she was only five.

At the end of our training, she was exhausted. The conch sounded and I realized we had missed the campfire again. I sent her off to bed and walked towards the bighouse.

I got to my room and saw that Zoë wasn't there yet. I figured she was still hanging out with her old friends. I got myself ready for bed and lay down. Right as I was about to fall asleep, I felt someone lay down on top of me I looked up and saw Zoë smiling down at me.

"Hey Percy," she said while looking down at me. "Did you have fun training Miranda?"

I nodded, "Yes I did, although I used my powers quite a bit and am a little tired now. In fact, I was about to fall asleep before you jumped onto me."

She grinned at me, "Well, that's too bad for you. I just spent time with all the hunters and Thalia was telling me the stories your mother told her about you as a baby."

I groaned and she laughed at my expression, "I can't believe Thalia would tell you those stories," I said. "Maybe I should tell you about Thalia's little fear and see if she finds that funny."

Zoë grinned even more, "Thalia is scared of something? This is priceless, what is it?"

I grinned at her, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

She glared at me, "Fine, if you won't tell me, I have ways of getting information out of you."

I looked into her eyes and saw that she was planning something bad for me. Before I could say something though, she pinned me to the bed and began tickling my sides. I couldn't take it. I don't know how she knew I was ticklish, but this was driving me crazy. I tried to push her off me, but I was weak from the tickling and she had me pinned to the bed.

After several minutes, she stopped. "Tell me her fear or I will have to continue this until you give in."

I saw she was about to start tickling me again and so I quickly spoke, "Wait!" I cried, "I'll tell you, I promise. Just no more tickling."

She grinned, "Good, it seems we are making progress. Now just tell me or I will start again."

I grinned at her, "I will get you back for this you know. Anyways, this is crazy and might be hard to believe, but Thalia, the daughter of the god of the skies is scared of heights."

Zoë looked at me stunned, "Are you serious?"

I looked at her and nodded my head, "Yes I am. I learned it on our quest to save Lady Artemis when we had to catch the giant wild boar thing."

Zoë smiled down at me, "That is some pretty good blackmail there. I suppose since you told me, I won't bug you too much about the baby stories I learned today."

I groaned, _great, now she has blackmail to use against me. _

She heard my groan and pouted, "Don't worry Percy, I won't go telling people these stories unless I need to. Now, it is time for bed so good night."

She slid into the bed next to me and wrapped her arms around me. I turned to look at her, "Good night Zoë, I will get you back though. I promise."

"Good luck with that," she whispered. And then together, we fell asleep.

**Done**

**Well, this chapter is a little longer than I had been planning on writing, but after taking such a long time to update, I decided to be nice and give you another longer chapter.**

**The next chapter will have capture the flag and depending on how long it ends up being, I may even include the next big surprise in the next chapter. Chances are it won't be in the next chapter, but it might be, just depends on how the writing goes.**

**Anyways, thanks for the reviews and messages and other good things.**

**If you have suggestions, recommendations, ideas, criticisms, or whatever, let me know in a review or PM.**

**Also, I have a poll up on my profile. It is not relevant to this story, but does relate to a future story I will write after I have finished this one. If you want to provide me with your opinion, then vote.**

**Thank you all for reading and anything else good that you do.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Here goes chapter 19**

**Sorry for the wait, I got a little distracted with my other story. I also knew that soon I would be getting distracted with this one, so yeah. Normally I try to alternate updates, but sometimes that doesn't happen. **

**As promised, this chapter will include a game of capture the flag. As for the surprise, you will have to wait and see whether it will be in this chapter. If it isn't then it will be in next chapter, as I said, it really just depends on how the writing goes.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the related works.**

Percy POV

I woke up early. Nothing unusual there, but when I woke up, I had an idea. As a child of Poseidon, I was not allowed in the sky, well, unless I was riding a pegasus. As my father created horses, a flying horse allowed me to bridge the gap between the realms and take to the skies. I wondered if I could do something similar with archery.

I sucked with a bow, that was no secret. My idea though, was to fire special arrows that were made of water. By bringing my natural element into contact with something that I couldn't do, I figured that they would balance out and I could be decent at archery that way.

It was early in the morning and I was rather comfortable, lying in bed beside Zoë, but I really wanted to test out my idea so I got up. I quickly got cleaned up and dressed and then walked outside to the archery range. I picked up one of the camps bows and tried to fire a few arrows. As I expected, the arrows went crazy and flew off in random directions.

I put the bow down and held an arrow in one hand. I concentrated on the arrow and then focused on my other hand. Pretty soon, I had a water replica of the arrow I was holding. Using my powers, I then cranked up the surface tension of the water so that it wouldn't fall apart and then I froze the tip to make it more solid. I nocked the arrow and aimed at the target in front of me. Concentrating on the arrow and the path I wanted it to take, I released the string and watched as the arrow flew. Amazingly, it managed to hit the target.

It wasn't a bull's-eye, but it was way better than any shot I had ever done before without a gods help. I smiled at my work and then created another water arrow to use. For the next hour, I fired arrow after arrow at the target and slowly got a little better. I wanted to keep working on this new skill of mine, but I could sense people were waking up and beginning to head outside. I wanted to keep this a secret for now, so I put the bow back and walked down to the beach.

I knew I had a long day ahead of me so I wanted to relax before it started. I stared out over the ocean until the conch sounded for breakfast. I turned around and walked to the dining pavilion, preparing myself for the day to come.

When I entered the pavilion, I noticed several things. One was that the hunters were all there and several Aphrodite children were glaring at them. Some of the hunters glared back, but of them just ignored it. I looked up to the head to table to see Chiron and Artemis talking, but no sign of Zoë there. I thought that was strange until I saw the Poseidon table and noticed that Zoë was busy talking to Miranda about something or other.

As I walked towards the Poseidon table, I saw some of the Aphrodite kids start to walk over to the hunters. Sighing, I walked over to them and told them to go back to their seats and that if they caused trouble there would be rather harsh punishments. They didn't like it, but they complied. Finally, I made it to my table and took a seat next to Zoë.

As soon as I sat down, Zoë and Miranda got quiet and stopped talking. I figured they were up to no good but decided to deal with that later. I figured they were planning something to mess with me or maybe Zoë was telling Miranda all the embarrassing things I had ever done. Either way, there was nothing I could do about it.

Zoë took one look at me and laughed, "Don't worry Percy, we weren't planning anything against you. We were merely discussing the hunt. Also we talked about the capture the flag game that is coming up."

I smiled, "Of course that is all you were talking about. Anyways, good morning to both of you."

For the next several days, the campers all worked harder than ever on their lessons. Since there were only 30 hunters, only 30 campers were being allowed to be on the camper team against them for capture the flag. Since the campers hadn't ever won in recent memory, they were incredibly motivated to win this game.

On the campers team there was going to be me, Zoë, the immortal campers, and a few other campers as well. The immortals consisted of Nico, Clarisse, Katie, the Stoll's, Chris, Leo, Piper, Will, Annabeth, and Daniel. For the most part they were all good. Daniel was an ass and ever since our showdown on Olympus he hadn't really done anything, but he was a skilled fighter so assuming he tried he would be useful. The campers that were going to be joining us would be whoever the immortal campers decided would be the best. They had asked for my opinion, but I said that it wasn't my place to judge.

When Friday finally came, all the campers were amped up and ready to witness the game. The participating campers had been decided and we had a strategy ready to go with. The immortal campers would guard the flag and the other campers would guard the rest of our territory. Zoë would deal with Artemis while I would get the flag. It was a rather simple plan based purely on power, but trickery didn't work too well on the hunters so we decided simple and straightforward was the best plan of action.

Before the game started, we all took our positions. Zoë and I stood right by the border while the other campers were setup throughout the rest of our territory. Zoë turned to look at me, "I never realized how much you campers wanted to beat the hunters. This is really strange playing on the other side now."

I grinned back, "Well, the hunters have won something like 60 times in a row. All the campers are incredibly competitive and with the way the hunters act, it only encourages them to try harder to win. This should be fun though. Have fun with Artemis. I know you are stronger than her, but she fights with the same style as you so she will be a rather difficult opponent."

"Don't worry about me. You are going to have to deal with the hunters. Sure you might be powerful and skilled, but you rely on close combat while they are all skilled with bows, you will have trouble just getting close to them. Also, Thalia will probably try to electrocute you as soon as she sees you, so have fun."

Before I could respond, the conch sounded beginning the game. I gave Zoë one last smile before taking off across the creek and heading for the flag. I made it about 50 feet before arrows started firing at me. I figured I could try to take out the hunters, or I could leave them to provide some entertainment for the campers. Since it wasn't my job to deal with them, I left them and continued running. A couple of the hunters tried to come at me with knives, but those ones I knocked as quickly and painlessly as I could before continuing on.

I reached out with my senses and could feel a stronger force a little ways ahead and a little to my left. It felt weaker than a god, but stronger than the rest of the hunters. I laughed, it seemed like Thalia got left on defense. I changed course to head towards her and then fell flat on my face. I heard some muffled laughter and the sound of arrows whizzing towards me. Quickly, I rolled aside and hopped up.

I looked at where I had fallen and realized they had set up a trip wire. And of course I had fallen for it. I groaned; I had been focusing too much on running into Thalia and had ignored my immediate surroundings. The hunters tried to shoot a few more arrows at me, but I just quickly blocked them and ran ahead, being more careful of my surroundings.

After a little more running, I broke into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was Thalia and the flag. I came to a halt and smirked at her, "Hey Thalia, having fun being stuck on defense?"

She glared at me, "I volunteered for defense because I knew you would come for the flag. I also have a plan for stopping you." She then raised her hand and signaled at me. Instantly, four arrows were shot at me.

I jumped back and sighed, "Really? You are so scared of fighting me you plan on having others shoot at me to keep me away?"

"Well, we all saw how strong you are so we knew no one could beat you one-on-one, so we settled for delaying you while the other hunters got your flag. Since you can't get our flag, we have the advantage."  
>I smirked at her and then charged. The constant stream of arrows being launched at me was annoying, but I managed to dodge them and get closer to the flag. Before I made it though, a lighting bolt struck right in front of me and then a spear tried to impale me from the side. I jumped away and glared at Thalia.<p>

"Fine," I said, "if you want to fight then I will fight." I pulled Riptide out and uncapped it. I tried to charge at Thalia, but the arrows would block me from getting close. Thalia, on the other hand, could get right next to me and try to strike. My only hope of beating her would be to attack while countering her.

On her next jab, I spun under her spear and tried to cut her but she just activated her shield to block my swing. I then had to quickly jump to the side to avoid the arrows being fired at me. This pattern continued for several minutes with me just getting more frustrated while Thalia was getting a huge smirk on her face at being able to stop me so easily.

"What's the matter, Percy? You seem to be having some difficulties here," Thalia mocked me.

I sighed, "Well, I have been trying to avoid using my powers to make things fair, but you aren't really playing fair so I have decided I don't need to play fair either." I then summoned water and created a bubble around me. The arrows that were being fired at me couldn't make it past the shield allowing me to move in close enough to Thalia to fight her without interruption.

Without the arrows interfering, I disarmed her and knocked her out in about 20 seconds. I then turned to the trees surrounding the clearing and raised the humidity until the air was practically impossible to breathe it. I grabbed the flag and ran out of the clearing back towards the creek. As soon as I left the clearing, I turned the air back to normal so I wouldn't kill the hunters.

Zoë POV

I saw Percy take off across the creek and decided to wait for a bit. The hunters would have to cross over eventually, and when they did, Lady Artemis would be with them. Either that or she would be guarding the flag and Thalia would be leading the hunters. If that was the case, then I would just have to deal with Thalia, but we were pretty sure Artemis would be leading the attack.

After several minutes, I saw a little movement out of the corner of my eye and so I immediately turned and fired several arrows at it. I heard the sound of a hunter going down and the rustling of a few more in the area. Before I could fire at them though, several arrows landed right at my feet. I turned towards where they had come from and saw my former mistress smiling at me.

"Hello Zoë, it seems I will be needed to distract you and allow my hunters to go and get the flag. So be it. Let us fight." She then raised her bow and fired several more arrows at me.

I jumped to the side and returned fire at her. Just as quickly, she jumped aside and onto a tree branch. I followed suit and then the two of us ran along the branches of trees and fired arrows at each other. Whenever we got close enough, we would try a few slashes with our knives, but for the most part we stuck with out bows. This continued for several minutes until I saw my opening.

Glancing ahead I saw the paths we were taking would intersect with each other. At the point right before they did, I tackled Artemis to the ground. She pushed me off, but when she got up, I attacked her with my hunting knives. She had no choice but to respond in kind, but this meant we were in close quarters fighting and she couldn't get away from me again.

Percy was right about her having the same fighting style as me and how that would make it harder to fight her. Although I was slightly faster, she could almost always predict my strikes before they landed, allowing her to block or dodge them as she needed. After several minutes of this, I managed to disarm one of her knives, and before she could draw another one to replace it, I had managed to disable the arm. After that, it didn't take long to completely disarm her and take her prisoner.

"Well, that was a fun duel Lady Artemis, but it seems I have finally surpassed my teacher."

She looked up at me and smiled, "Yes, it would appear so. Congratulations on that Zoë. I am incredibly proud of you and the life you live."

I blushed at the compliment but managed to respond, "Thank you. That means a lot to me, it really does. Anyways, what do you say we get back to the creek and see who is going to win this game?"

"Of course, it would be a shame if you didn't see the hunters cross the creek with your flag, especially after all the work you put into defeating me."

I laughed and together we walked to the creek to wait for one team to cross and claim the victory. The wait didn't take long. There was a lot of screaming and protesting from the campers side so I knew that the flag had been taken, but before it could be brought back to the creek, Percy crossed it with the hunters flag in hand.

I smiled at Percy and then looked at Artemis, "Well, even though I'm not a hunter anymore, it seems my team is still unbeatable at capture the flag."

She sighed and then smiled, "I guess so, but we will see how long that lasts, the hunters will be at camp for a while and we will defeat you. Still, congratulations on beating the hunters."

Before anymore could be said, Chiron walked into view and blew the conch, signaling victory and ending the game. The campers and hunters made their way towards where we were gathered in order to see the results of the game.

When everyone had arrived, Chiron announced the victor, "The campers have won the game. The record between hunters and campers now stands at hunters 58, campers 1." The campers all broke into sheering at finally having won against the hunters and after a few minutes Chiron continued, "It was a game well played, so enjoy the victory while it lasts. Now, off to bed you all go, you have are going to be busy for a while and will need all the rest you can get."

The campers all came over and congratulated us on winning while the hunters went off to their cabin in defeat. Slowly, we made our way back to camp and when we arrived; the rest of the campers came and congratulated us as well. There was quite a bit of festivities going on before Chiron managed to corral all the campers into their cabins for the night.

Before heading off to bed myself, I grabbed Zoë's hand and pulled alongside me for a little walk. We walked in silence for several minutes, just relaxing in each others presence. We came to the ocean and I found myself staring up at the stars.

After several minutes of silence, I heard Zoë's soft voice, "What are you thinking about now, Percy?"

"Before you returned to life, I used to look at your constellation and talk to it in order to not feel as lonely. It helped me to relax and feel at peace. Now that you are back, I still find myself mesmerized by the constellation. It reminds me of all the good things I have in my life and all the ways that my life has changed. I never truly appreciated the beauty of the stars until you joined them. When you died and were put in the sky, I finally realized the true beauty of the night sky. Although you alive again, I still enjoy watching the stars and taking in their beauty."

I turned my head to look at Zoë and saw her staring up at the sky. She then turned to look at me, "The stars are indeed beautiful. I have always enjoyed watching them. Once I joined the hunt, they became even more beautiful along with the rest of the night sky. I always wanted to be a star, to look down on the world and watch it age and move on. Once I got the chance though, I began wondering if it was the best thing for me. When Chaos came and explained to me how I could have a second chance at life, I took the offer and every minute of my life I am glad I made the choice to return. The stars still hold all their beauty for me, but after being one, I no longer look at them the same way."

For the next several minutes, we stood on the beach looking out over the ocean, hand-in-hand. Eventually, we made our way back to the bighouse and lay down to go to sleep. I had hoped for a calm and peaceful sleep, but instead my sleep was filled with feelings of dread and danger. I woke up around 2:00 in the morning with a serious feeling of immediate trouble.

I didn't believe there was enough time to wake Zoë and deal with the problem, so I got myself up and immediately teleported myself to where I felt the problem. I appeared at the border of camp, right next to Peleus. My sudden appearance surprised him, but once he realized it was me he calmed down again. I looked around for the source of my feeling and saw two figures going down the hill on the other side. One of them was about my size, maybe a little shorter and not as powerful looking, but close enough to my size. The other figure appeared to be a small child.

My feeling of dread increased as I realized who the two were. The small figure appeared to be struggling, but couldn't really move or make any noise. I knew that leaving the camp borders at night was a bad idea, but if the small figure was who I thought it was, then I needed to do it. I teleported in front of Daniel and punched him in the face. He staggered back a few steps before realizing it was me and grinning at me.

"You're too late Percy. We are outside of the camp borders so there is nothing you can do to stop this."

I glared at him and was about to attack him and teleport us all back to camp when I heard something behind me. I turned around to see Moros and a female figure who looked incredibly similar to him.

Moros gave me a crual grin and spoke, "Perseus Jackson, I warned you not to interfere anymore but you didn't listen. Now my mother is rather upset and planned a way to stop you." He then turned to Daniel, "Good work boy, give us the girl and your oath on the Styx shall be washed away."

I turned to Daniel and glared at him, "You're working with Nyx!" I yelled at him.

He gave me his cruel smile, "Yes I am, brother. She told me if I helped her out, she could erase the oath you made me swear to. I could be myself again and get the respect I deserve. My life would be good again. All I had to do was take little Miranda here and give her to Nyx and Gaea's forces. That would draw you out giving them a chance to break you."

The female figure who had been by Moros walked over to Daniel and was about to take Miranda from him. I knew I couldn't allow that so I ran over and grabbed her away first. I tried to teleport back into the camp, but I felt something cold and metallic click around my ankles. I looked down and saw earthen hands holding onto bronze cuffs that were now around my ankles.

A face appeared in the Earth and spoke, "The plan had been to draw you out by kidnapping Miranda, but it seems we got you even faster than we had envisioned. These cuffs will prevent you from teleporting or using your powers. You are our prisoner now and I shall have my revenge on you."

I could feel myself slowly being pulled into the Earth and knew that I couldn't escape. I also knew I had to get Miranda to safety. I heard someone scream my name and I looked to the top of the hill and saw someone standing there. I quickly recognized the person as Zoë. She was about to run down and try to rescue me. I knew that if she did that, she would just get captured as well, so I shook my head and looked at her.

"Zoë, stay at the camp. You cannot save me. I also need you to catch something." I then threw Miranda. I knew it wasn't a nice thing to do, but she needed to get into the protection of camp before she was chained and taken prisoner as well. Since I couldn't teleport and no one could come down to save me, it was the only way to do it.

I never got a chance to see if she made it or not, because right after I threw her, the Earth completely swallowed me.

Zoë POV

I had been asleep, dreaming about my time in the stars when I felt the person next to me leave the bed in a hurry. The motion woke me up. I looked around and saw Percy with a panicked look on his face before he teleported out. Immediately I was filled with dread. I quickly got up and ran out of the bighouse. At the top of the hill, I could see Peleus moving and puffing smoke. I ran up to the top of the hill and froze.

Percy was outside of the borders holding a young girl who I immediately recognized. Standing in front of him was Daniel, while standing behind him was Moros and his twin sister Oizys. I wondered why Percy hadn't teleported back up here when I saw his feet had chains on them and earthen hands were holding onto them. As I watched, he began getting dragged into the Earth.

I screamed, "PERCY!" and was about to run down and try to help him, but he spoke first.

"Zoë, stay at the camp. You cannot save me. I also need you to catch something," he said. At first I was confused, but then I saw him lift up Miranda and throw her at me. I was surprised, but I did manage to catch her. I then looked back down and saw no sign of Percy; the Earth had taken him.

I then looked at Daniel and saw him fall to the ground in agony. He was screaming and writhing in absolute pain and as I watched, his body slowly seemed to dissolve. I got a sick satisfaction from watching him die and suffer so immensely, but I wished I could have contributed to his pain. When he was finished disintegrating, Moros looked up at me, "He was easy to manipulate. We promised to remove the oath on the Styx he had made and he believed we could actually do it. You heroes are easy to manipulate. Remember that. We know how to make them work for us and do our bidding. Just as they are tools to the gods, they are tools to us as well."

His sister then looked at me and spoke, "We have captured your precious boyfriend and there is nothing you can do about it. You have angered our mother and she will make sure that you suffer. There will be no easy death for Jackson and once we capture you as well, you shall suffer the same tortures as him."

The two figures then disappeared into the night, leaving me standing on the hillside with a young girl in my hands. A young girl, that snapped me back into reality and I untied her binds and removed the gag from her mouth. Immediately she wrapped her arms around my neck and began crying. I did my best to comfort her, but I too found myself crying.

I wanted nothing more than to keep crying and expressing my sorrow, but I knew I couldn't do that. All the commotion had gotten the attention of the camp and after several minutes, Chiron came cantering up the hillside.

He looked at us, "My children, what has happened here?"

I did my best to calm down and then told him what I had seen. When I finished my story, Chiron had a few tears running down his face. He game over and gave each of us a hug. "This is truly a tragedy. Percy does not deserve such a fate. We can only hope that he is kept alive long enough to find a way to escape."

I wanted nothing more than to leave immediately and search for Percy, but I knew I wouldn't make it far during the night without any protection. I felt empty and alone. Ever since I had been brought back to life, Percy had been with me. He had always been there and always knew how to make me feel better. Now he was gone and I couldn't do anything except cry.

Chiron told us to go and get some sleep because the next day was going to be difficult. I didn't want to sleep. I didn't think I would be able to. Without Percy beside me, the bed would feel empty and lonely. The idea of sleeping seemed like a terribly idea. Chiron, however, insisted upon it and I was in no shape to argue.

I walked to the Poseidon cabin to drop Miranda off, but she looked at me and spoke for the first time since I had caught her, "Can I sleep with you please? I'm scared." Her voice shook and she looked incredibly sad. I couldn't speak, so I just nodded my head and walked back to the bighouse.

I lay down in bed with Miranda in front of me. I pulled her into a hug and tried to comfort her. She hadn't spoken since asking me to sleep with her, but I could tell she was absolutely miserable. I don't know how much she understood about what had happened, but if she was anything like Percy, she probably blamed herself for it all.

I slept miserably. I would see images of Percy being tortured by the enemies and would wake up sweating. It felt like I had slept for hours at a time, but it had only been minutes. The whole night passed like that and as soon as the sun peaked above the horizon I got up. I couldn't stand sleeping anymore.

As soon as I got up, Miranda did too. She climbed out of bed and motioned for me to pick her up. I did, and then I walked down to the beach. I sat down in the sand and Miranda sat down on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her as we looked out at the ocean. After an hour or so, the waves reached my feet. When they did, Miranda stood up and walked up to her knees in the ocean. It reminded me of Percy. As long as we had been at camp, he would walk up to his knees in the ocean and stare out at it.

After a few minutes, I felt a presence. I looked over at Miranda and saw that beside her was a tall figure who looked incredibly similar to Percy.

Poseidon looked at Miranda's sad face and then at me, "Where is Percy? What has happened to my son?"

**Well, umm, sorry I haven't updated in a while. I got stuck trying to get my idea's down and flowing. I might rewrite this chapter later because I feel like I didn't do the best job on it. **

**The next chapter shouldn't take as long to write and post, so yeah.**

**Anyways, Gaea has captured Percy. Poor guy. **

**The next chapter will have reactions to his capture as well as a decision on what to do about it. Will they send a team to rescue him, or will they make him free himself? Can he free himself? **

**Well, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I will try to have the next one up by Thursday. It might take longer than that, but I will try my hardest to have it done by then.**

**If you have anything to say to me about the story or anything else, leave a review or PM me. I will do my best to answer any questions you ask me. I don't respond to all reviews, but if you ask questions or offer suggestions, you are much more likely to get a response. PM's I will respond to. **

**Anyways, I hope you all are having good lives and are enjoying yourselves. Until next time.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**I don't know about you guys, but I am incredibly proud of myself here. This is my 20****th**** chapter in this story and I have kept my promise from chapter one about updating at least once a week. This chapter will also put me over 80,000 words. As of my last chapter, I was averaging 4,160 or so words per chapter, which is about twice as much as I had originally expected to be writing. **

**When I began writing, I wasn't sure how long my story would be, or if anyone would even read it. The response to this story has been incredible. I am averaging about 10 reviews per chapter and am getting over 1,000 views on days when I don't update. 2,000+ views when I do update. 150 people have favorite this story and a few more than that have this story on alert, or whatever. So far, this story has over 40,000 views.**

**Several of you guys have even listed me as a favorite author, which I must say makes me feel incredibly special. Right now, 28 people have me listed as a favorite author, so thank you to any of you guys. **

**The responses to this story and positive support I got even got me to start a second story. After I finish this story, whenever that happens to be, due to all the positive feedback I have gotten I will continue writing and write more stories. **

**At this point, I do not have an ending planned for this story. That means that there are still plenty of chapters and adventure left here, so don't worry about that. At the same time, I won't drag this story on forever, that would be cruel.**

**Anyways, I threw all that fun stuff in because I feel special about having gotten so far in this story thanks to all of you guys who read it. So once again, thank you all.**

**Now, on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books and stuff.**

_After a few minutes, I felt a presence. I looked over at Miranda and saw that beside her was a tall figure who looked incredibly similar to Percy. _

_ Poseidon looked at Miranda's sad face and then at me, "Where is Percy? What has happened to my son?"_

**Zo****ë**** POV**

I looked up at Poseidon and answered him, "He was taken by Gaea and Nyx."

Poseidon looked like he was going to explode. Miranda started crying again. I wanted to join them, but I had to think things through and try to save Percy. Poseidon finally managed to talk again, "What happened? Tell me, I must know this."

I sighed, "I don't know all the details, but I will tell you what I saw. I woke up early and saw Percy teleport away, I got a bad feeling so I walked out of the bighouse to look around. I saw some commotion at the top of Halfblood Hill and ran up there as fast as I could. I looked down the hill and saw Percy talking to Daniel who was holding Miranda, probably as a hostage. Behind them were several of Nyx's children. Percy managed to get Miranda and threw her to me before I could run down to save him. I then looked down at him and saw he was being taken by Gaea and wasn't able to teleport away."

When I finished, I was looking down at my feet and feeling guilty. I should have done more to try and save him. If I had gotten there sooner or done something differently, I could have saved him. I felt terrible about what happened. I felt someone's arms around me and looked up to see Poseidon looking at me.

"Don't feel bad Zoë, if you had left the safety of camp, you would have been taken as well and Percy would feel terrible. Right now you just have to focus on how you plan on saving him. Or, based on how strong he is now, he could probably free himself if he tried hard enough." His face then turned angry, "Where is Daniel though? He dares to betray his won family? I will have him KILLED!"

I gave Poseidon a small smile, "Daniel is dead. The oath he swore on the Styx after his fight with Percy killed him. I watched as his body dissolved and he went through tremendous agony. His punishment is now up to Lord Hades."

Poseidon grinned, "I will go have a word with my brother after I leave here. For now, you know the most about Percy and his situation, what can we do about it? How can we save him, or should we let him save himself?"

"Percy is strong. I don't know if Nyx and Gaea realize the extent of his power. If they trap him the way they would trap a god, he should be able to free himself and then teleport back to camp," I explained. I saw Poseidon smile at that, but I continued, "However, they know he is powerful and that he destroyed Alcyoneus back in Alaska as well as Kampê. If Daniel served as a spy for them and gave them intel, they would know that he has extra strength granted from Chaos. That would probably lead them to lock him up extra securely. Whether or not that would be enough to stop Percy is not something I am sure about at the moment."

Poseidon frowned, but then seemed to get an idea, "Chaos," he said. "Can't you contact Chaos and get information? Chaos would want Percy to be alive and helping us prepare for the war, right?"

I sighed, "Chaos never talks to us. Occasionally we get some message, but for the most part we are expected to be self-reliant our here. As for contacting Chaos, we have not been given any ways to do so other than just regular praying, and you know how gods are about answering prayers," I said looking at him. Poseidon gave a sheepish smile before I continued. "Anyways, I have an idea on how to save Percy, I just need to know where he is so that I can do so."

Poseidon seemed to contemplate my answers, "Well, if Chaos won't tell you anything, my guess would be that since Gaea took him, he is being guarded my some of her children. If she has any raised yet, that is. You should begin your search for him in the locations where you would expect her children to reside. However, if you do search for him, be careful. If you get hurt or worse, Percy would never forgive himself."

I nodded my head, "Well, do you have any suggestions as to where they would be? The titans would be on Mount Othrys, but you would know if they were there. I have no clue where to search for the giants. During the first war, they were raised in Pallene, but that is in Greece. Do you know where that would be moved to in modern America?"

"If you asked Athena, she might know, but I do not. If I had to guess, I would say Florida. Pallene was a peninsula. If it moved here, that is where I would look for it. For now, I should report the current situation to the gods; they will want to know about Percy being taken. If you do plan to head out and find him, make sure the gods are informed before you leave."

I nodded to the sea god before returning my gaze to the ocean. It was such a sad sight without Percy around. I looked over at Miranda and she seemed pretty miserable as well. Poseidon must have noticed this because he walked over to her and picked her up.

He looked down at her and smiled, "Don't worry Miranda. Percy will be fine. He is the strongest demigod ever and he has Zoë trying to save him. It won't take long for him to be back here at camp again."

Miranda gave him a hug and started crying. She tried to talk but I couldn't understand anything through her tears. After several minutes she finally calmed down enough to be understood, "I'm sorry. It's all my fault Percy was taken. He saved my life once to get me to camp and when he saved me a second time, he was taken prisoner. It's all my fault he's in danger." She then broke down into sobs again.

I couldn't help but smile at her. She reminded me of Percy. She was blaming herself for something that wasn't her fault. I walked over to Poseidon and took Miranda from him. I made her look at me and then smiled at her, "It's not your fault. I promise. It was Daniel's fault. He kidnapped you and tried to give you to Gaea. Percy simply did what he has always done and will always do: risked his well being for the sake of another. If you want to blame someone for his being taken, you have to blame Daniel. Now, come on, it's time for breakfast and after that you have your classes and training to do."

Poseidon smiled at the two of us one more time before dissolving into the ocean. Miranda then made me put her down and walked towards the pavilion. I knew breakfast would be unpleasant, as would the meeting that was sure to follow, but I steeled myself for it and followed.

As I suspected, breakfast was miserable. I sat at the Poseidon table with Miranda in order to keep help comfort her, but I wasn't hungry and neither was she. The constant looks we were getting from everyone weren't helping. They tried to hide it, but I could see all of the campers glancing over at the table every couple of seconds and then glancing at the head table. They all could tell that something was wrong based on the way Miranda and I were acting and from the fact that both Daniel and Percy were missing.

Up at the head table, Chiron was looking pretty miserable as well. Lady Artemis gave me a sad look and I figured Chiron had told her what had happened. About halfway through the meal, Chiron stood up and made an announcement. "As I am sure you have all noticed, we are missing Percy and Daniel today. Following breakfast, there will be a councilor meeting in the bighouse to discuss this."

I smiled gratefully at Chiron. Now that he had announced that, I no longer felt obligated to sit here and get pitying and questioning looks from everyone. I stood up and walked out to the bighouse. Miranda followed me and I let her. She missed Percy and felt guilty about it, so I figured it would help her to sit through the meeting about what we were going to do about his being taken.

We arrived at the bighouse and unsurprisingly found it empty. I took a seat by the Ping-Pong table and sat Miranda on my lap. We sat there together in silence until all the councilors arrived along with Chiron, Artemis, and Dionysus.

Once everyone was seated, Dionysus broke the silence, "Is it true?" He asked.

"Is what true?" I heard Annabeth say.

Dionysus ignored her and looked at me, "Chiron told me what he saw last night, and I got a message from Hermes about it as well. Apparently Poseidon told Zeus and the others on Olympus. Is it true, and if so, what really happened?"

"Is WHAT true?" Annabeth yelled. "You all are talking as if we should know what is going on. Does this have to do with why Percy isn't here and why Daniel is missing as well? What is going that you aren't telling me?"

I glared at her, "Sit down and shut up. Lord Dionysus was asking me a question. If you want to get your answers, you would do well top listen, not scream." I then turned to the god of wine, "Yes it is true. Last night Daniel betrayed us and kidnapped Miranda. In order to save her, Percy left the safety of the borders and was taken by Gaea and Nyx's forces."

**Percy POV**

After the Earth swallowed me, I blacked out. When I woke up, I noticed I was in a cave. At least that's what my senses were telling me. The air was dank but fresh. The wall behind me was rough and the ground was rocky. I couldn't move my arms or legs. My head was immobilized as well. I could feel metal shackles attached to my ankles and wrists, keeping them in place. Around my forehead was a metal band anchoring it to the wall and preventing my head from moving.

I slowly opened my eyes, but since I couldn't rub them with my hands, it took a while for them to adjust. After a minute or so, I was able to see clearly and looked around. From what I could see from my limited position, I was indeed in a cave. I couldn't see very much due to the poor lighting, but I could see enough to make out the general outline of my prison.

It was a square shaped room maybe ten feet across. Directly across from me was a passageway leading out. It curved to the left almost immediately and the only light source was at the bend in the passageway. The light came from a torch hung on the wall.

Once I had gathered my bearings, I tried to fell out with my powers. That failed pretty quickly. As soon as I tried, I felt incredibly weak and all of my energy left me. I tried to teleport away and once again had no success. I heard footsteps approaching me so I tried even harder to break free from my bonds.

From around the corner, I heard a voice, "I wouldn't try that if I were you Jackson. You are tied down with celestial bronze shackles on your limbs as well as on your forehead. They will prevent you from using your powers. We know you are strong, so we have enough power-blocking restraints on you to immobilize half of the Olympian council."

The voice was female and I felt as if I had heard it before. After hearing about my constraints, I gave up trying to break free; instead I tried to figure out who was approaching me and why they sounded familiar. After several more seconds, a fat figure appeared around the corner and I groaned, "Echidna."

The fat lady smirked at me, "I'm honored you remember me, Perseus Jackson. You were lucky to escape me the first time. This time, I truly hate you. First, your plan allowed the gods to send my husband to Tartarus, next, you aided greatly in the defeat of my mother, now, you are once again trying to fight my mother and prevent her from claiming what is rightfully hers."

I glared at her, "That's all fine and dandy, but what are you doing here? If you were going to kill me, I would be dead already. If you want information, forget it. If you came for a social visit, kindly turn around and leave."

"Ah, but Percy, I have come to make you an offer," she said with a grin. "We cannot kill you or there is a chance Chaos will just revive you as he did with that dead hunter girl. If we leave you imprisoned, there is a chance you could be freed by your friends. It is a small chance, nearly non-existent in fact, but as we have learned over the years, nothing is impossible with you annoying demigod brats. What I come to offer is a deal to set you free."

"Give it up, I'm not going to help you here. Whatever your deal is, shove it up your ass and leave me alone. And why are you offering me a deal, isn't Prometheus your deal broker? He was certainly better at it than you are."

Echidna glared at me and spat in my face. "Insolent boy, you need to learn your place. I will come back tomorrow to offer you the deal since you seem so uninterested in it right now. Hopefully, after a little bit of social time with our torturers, you will be a little more polite and willing to listen."

I smiled at the mother of all monsters, "Maybe, but I doubt it. I have given my very existence to Chaos. Compared to Chaos, you all are nothing and stand no chance of getting me to make some deal with you. Give up now and just torture me until I escape. I will escape, that I can guarantee."

Echidna turned around and walked over to me. She glared at me, but I just returned the glare. She then raked her claws against my stomach and walked out. As soon as she turned the corner, I yelled out to her. "You know that anteater the Australians named after you? Well, I'm pretty sure it could hurt me worse that what you just did."

I heard her scream in frustration, but she didn't turn around this time. Once again, I was alone in my prison.

I tried to relax and assess my situation better. I was a prisoner of Gaea and Nyx. I was chained down and my powers were being suppressed. No one knew where I was and I couldn't hope for being rescued. I didn't want to be rescued either; it would be too dangerous for people to leave the safety of camp to look for me. I needed to free myself. The problem with freeing myself brought me back to the problem of not being able to use my powers. Once again, I tried to summon water and shake the ground. Nothing happened except for all of my energy leaving me and me getting a headache. After an hour of my futile efforts, I fell back asleep.

**Annabeth POV**

I hadn't been in a good mood since Percy showed up with Zoë. I knew it was my fault he was with her instead of me, but I still hated it. What really sucked was the fact that I couldn't find any way to break them apart and get Percy back. He had even told me that if I tried he would make me regret it.

At first, I wasn't sure about the level of their relationship. They had hung around each other a lot, but there was no public kissing and hugging to be seen. After a few days though, they started kissing. Every time I saw it, I felt a deep emotional pain as well as immense jealousy.

I was way better than Zoë, so why wouldn't Percy just forgive me and get back together with me? I had apologized for my mistakes and truly regretted what I had done, what else could I do to get him back? I was going to ask him about it at breakfast, but when I got to the pavilion, he wasn't there.

I looked around and saw Zoë and his half-sister Miranda sitting at the Poseidon table without Percy or Daniel. I didn't care about Daniel, in fact, I was glad he was gone. Percy being gone though, that was a problem. I saw the looks on Zoë's face as well as Miranda's and knew that something was wrong.

After breakfast, I went to the bighouse for the councilor meting that Chiron had mentioned. He said it was about why Percy and Daniel were missing. I didn't care about Daniel, but I needed to know where Percy was.

Dionysus turned to Zoë and asked her if it was true. I had no clue what was going on so I spoke up. Of course, I was being ignored. Everyone was focusing on Zoë for answers and ideas. She had taken my boyfriend, now she was taking my place at camp. I was the one that was supposed to know what was going on, not her.

Finally, I couldn't take the not knowing and I yelled at them all, "Is WHAT true? You all are talking as if we should know what is going on. Does this have to do with why Percy isn't here and why Daniel is missing as well? What is going that you aren't telling me?"

"Sit down and shut up. Lord Dionysus was asking me a question. If you want to get your answers, you would do well top listen, not scream." I couldn't believe her. She had no right to talk to me that way. However, I wanted my answers so I was quiet and waited. Zoë turned back to Dionysus and said, "Yes it is true. Last night Daniel betrayed us and kidnapped Miranda. In order to save her, Percy left the safety of the borders and was taken by Gaea and Nyx's forces."

I stood up and glared at Zoë, "YOU BITCH!" I screamed. "I knew you weren't good enough for Percy. You let him get captured by the enemies while you stayed at camp safe and sound? How could you? Percy loved you and you just stood there watching this happen?"

I was going to say more, but an arrow was fired into my left shoulder and then my right one. A knife was then being held at my throat. Zoë's voice whispered in my ear, "If you speak one more word at this meeting without my permission, I will send you Hades. I will then tell Poseidon about why you are there and he will make sure Hades sends you to punishment. Is that clear?"

The knife was digging into my neck and I couldn't move my arms at all; the arrows had paralyzed them. I gave a small nod of my head so that I would cut myself on her knife and I felt the pressure disappear. She then pushed down on my shoulder, forcing me to take my seat.

I watched as she slowly walked back to her seat and then turned to face me, "After this meeting is over, you should go and get yourself healed. For now, I don't want you to be able to use your arms." I glared at her, but there was nothing I could do.

Zoë then turned back to Dionysus and spoke, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Percy was taken by Gaea and Nyx's forces. After this, Daniel was killed due to breaking his oath on the Styx he made after his fight with Percy."

All the campers looked at me as well as the gods and Chiron. I sighed, "Before you all freak out, I have an idea on how to save him. You see, if I had left the borders like Annabeth seems to think I should have, I would have been captured as well. Since I stayed, I am now able to rescue Percy myself. A much smarter choice if I do say so myself."

I glared at her again, but she just smirked at me. Lady Artemis then spoke up, "How do you propose to rescue him? It is dangerous to leave the borders of camp at night and we have no clue where he is."

I figured that would take Zoë's confidence away, but she just smiled at the goddess. "Well, I know you are having the hunt stay here because there are too many of them to protect with your powers, but I was wondering, how many people could you shelter from the eyes of the night?"

Artemis seemed to consider this, "Probably three or four people. I suppose we could do that, send me with a few others to try and rescue him, but there needs to be more than that for this mission."

Zoë smiled again, "Well, I had a little talk with Poseidon this morning and have a pretty good idea of where Percy has been taken to. As for who should go, I would go as well as you. In theory that is all we would need, but I think Nico should go as well. He is Percy's best friend from before meeting Chaos and from the look on his face, I can tell he really wants to go and help out."

I was pissed. Zoë was organizing a plan to save Percy and I wasn't part of it. I couldn't even voice my opinion or Zoë would kill me. What was really bad was that no one was asking for my opinion on this. They were all smiling and nodding at Zoë like she was the greatest person ever. Even Chiron was happy with her plan and ignoring me.

Nico smiled at Zoë, "You're right, I do want to go on this quest. However, don't we need a prophecy for this kind of undertaking?"

Zoë looked at him, "Well, for most quests yes, but Chaos is beyond the power of the oracle and since Chaos has provided both myself and Percy with Chaos's blessing, we too have moved beyond that realm. It is why none of you were able to undertake quests to search for Percy while he was missing. The only way to find him is by using your own intelligence or getting help from Chaos."

Nico nodded at that and Artemis spoke up, "I suppose that makes sense. I would also like to say that I will help out with this quest. I will provide protection from the night as well as help fight any titans or giants we may come across. Right now, I need to go to Olympus and explain the situation to my father so he knows what is going on. I propose we leave tomorrow at first light."

Zoë and Nico nodded their approval and Artemis flashed out to Olympus. Chiron then dismissed the meeting and I left to get healed. While I was being bandaged up I tried to think about what I should do. There was no way I could travel unnoticed by a goddess on the quest. I also couldn't follow alone or else Nyx would find me at night. I groaned in frustration and made my way back to my cabin.

My life sucked. All I wanted was my boyfriend back but fate seemed to be working against me. I wasn't the least but tired; yet I found myself falling asleep.

**Well, that's the chapter. I know it has been a while since my last update and I apologize for that. I will try to update again in a few days, but I make no promises on that. I will update within a week though.**

**Now, the mission to rescue Percy has been set up. The next chapter will involve the search for him as well as how he is being tortured and the offer Echidna had for him that he wouldn't even listen to this time.**

**Once again, I would like to thank each and every person out there who has read my story and possibly even reviewed it or favorite it or something. It really does provide me with inspiration to keep writing.**

**For those wondering about the timeline for the rest of this story, there will be the mission to rescue Percy, a little more on the training of the campers, the final war preparations, and then the war. There will be a conclusion following the war to wrap things up and then the story will be done.**

**Like always, please let me know what you think about this chapter, this story, or me in a PM or review. Suggestions and constructive criticism are appreciated as well.**

**Until the next time, enjoy other stories. I myself am currently reading a few other FanFiction stories as well as the book **_**A Game Of Thrones.**_


	21. I'm back Kinda AN

**AN**

**Well, this is actually important, so please read it. Or don't. If you don't read it though, well, you won't know what I'm trying to say.**

**Hey guy's, I know I promised weekly updates and all that and I then disappeared for the past 4 months or something crazy like that. Sorry about that. That is part of what I'm going to address here.**

**So, the easiest way to say this is that life caught up to me. I was busy writing and suddenly several major things happened that forced me to leave writing for a while. I'd rather not get into that too much, as I try to keep my personal life and issues off the internet. I wish I could have let you guy's know before I just vanished, but alas, I could not. Hopefully you can forgive me, but if you can't, that's your problem, not mine. That might seem mean, but I don't want to get into any ridiculous internet drama with people I don't even know, so if you're pissed at me for leaving like I did, just know I won't respond to your barbs and whatnot.**

**As for my writing, that's the other thing I wish to address here. I will be continuing my writing and my stories. However, when I came back to my stories to continue them, I read them. Needless to say, I was not impressed. Both of my stories I feel hold a lot of potential that I just wasn't reaching before. They both feel rushed, as if I pushed out updates and whatnot before they were truly ready. With a bunch of amazing readers and reviewers like you guy's, I feel bad putting out that quality of work. **

**What I'm getting at is that I'm rewriting my stories. I'm not changing the storylines or anything, just upping the quality and fixing errors I made. My goal is to have a pair of high quality stories for you guy's to enjoy reading. With as awesome as you guys have been, I would feel bad to not put out the highest quality work I can.**

**A timeline for these rewrites I'm mentioning. I can type 15,000 words a day if I really try. Maybe more or less depending on how much time I have, but 15,000 words is what I can do with 8 hours of typing a day. My two stories currently comprise 129,000 words. That means that if I really tried, I could have everything rewritten in a week and a half. Then again, I don't really want to rush things either. Regardless, I should have both stories completely rewritten within a month.**

**Now, for the part where you readers are involved. I want your opinion on things. However, I want a full opinion, so a poll won't work. My question to you guys is this: How should I update my rewritten stories? Do you want me to delete my current stories and post new stories, blank of all reviews and whatnot? Do you want me to replace the chapters in my current stories as I rewrite them? Do you want me to stick with my current stories and update everything at once as soon as I've finished rewriting it all? If you could let me know how you feel about that question in a review or PM, that would be appreciated. **

**Once again, I would like to apologize for disappearing the way I did. I will do my best to have my updated stories up quickly and then continue to update frequently, but I want your guys' opinion on how that should be done before I do it.**

**Thank you all for everything. You guys are all amazing. Peace for now, and hopefully I'll be able to update again soon.**

**-chilledcactus**


	22. My decision

**AN**

**So, I've made my decision on how to update my rewritten stories. I won't just delete what I have written. Yet. My plan is to publish a new version of each of my stories. I will update the chapters as I rewrite them. Once I've caught up with the story I have written so far, I will delete the old version of the story and post new content on the new stories.**

**One of the 'new' stories will be: The Guardians of Earth.**

**The other 'new' story will be: Love for the Loveless (rewritten)**

**I don't know how well this will work, but I'll do my best to make it work. I'd like to apologize, again, for the long delay since my last updates, but life happens. I'll try not to let it happen again, but you never know. You can't plan for everything.**

**Also, I almost have the first chapters of both my stories rewritten, I just need to do a final round of edits and they will be up. I will do everything in my power to have them up before midnight on the west coast of the USA.**


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